


Filling in the Gaps

by gnatashameow



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27220807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnatashameow/pseuds/gnatashameow
Summary: This literally focuses on the gaps between and during books where we don't see Nico and Will much and tries to fill them in. It'll start after Blood of Olympus and show how their relationship began, and will show major events through Trials of Apollo as well as most likely continue on afterwards. Follows canon as closely as possible, in both Nico's and Will's POV's.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 65
Kudos: 214





	1. Nico

Nico woke with a start, his fingers gripping the sides of his bed. A bead of sweat trickled down from his face and into his hair. The cabin was dark and empty - as it always was - and the only sound was the sound of his own ragged breathing.

The nightmare had felt so real. Nico had thought he was back in Tartarus, inhaling the sulfurous fumes while flames from the Phlegathon licked his legs as he trudged past it. A deep voice echoed in his mind.  _ You thought you could escape me?  _ The god had laughed.  _ Do not forget, son of Hades. You have left something behind.  _

Nico didn’t know what that could be about, but this was the fifth night in a row that he had had the same dream and had heard Tartarus’s taunting voice calling to him. He had never met Tartarus, and yet he somehow still knew that it was his voice. 

Nico usually woke before he could ask what the old god meant. Not that he wanted to, anyway. As far as Nico was concerned, he just wanted to never have to think about Tartarus again. 

His father seemed to feel similarly. After the war with Gaea, and three long days in the infirmary, Nico had decided to pay the Underworld a quick little visit so that he could explain to his dad that he would be staying at Camp Half-Blood from now on. He had expected Hades to be upset with him for that, but it turned out that he was actually furious at him for an entirely different reason. 

“WHAT. WERE. YOU. THINKING?!” his father bellowed at him from his throne, as Nico slowly rose to his feet from his initial, respectful kneel. 

“Um, what?” 

Not the most eloquent response, but the best Nico could come up with. When they last spoke, his father had been strangely kind and supportive, telling Nico that he wanted him to be happy - unlike most of his other children. But now, his father’s voice was saturated with a level of anger that Nico hadn’t witnessed since before the Battle of Manhattan.

Hades glowered at him, standing up from his throne and taking a few steps down towards him. “My son,” he continued, his tone still fierce but quieter, “you were foolish trying to find the Doors of Death on your own. Do you not think that, were it within my own power I would have found them myself? What made you think you could do that? How did one of my children grow to be so  _ incredibly stupid _ ?”

Nico’s cheeks felt warm, but he glared straight into his father’s eyes, feeling more defiance than shame. “Actually, no. You yourself have told me enough times, ‘Not my problem, that’s demigod business,’ anytime something bad is happening in the world and I ask you for help.” Hades’s gaze bored into him ever stronger, making Nico’s skin begin to tingle. “Besides, if you’re so mad about it, why didn’t you say anything before?”

Hades spun on his heel and strode back to his throne, sitting down slowly, resting his forearms on the armrests. His fingers drummed the edges lightly as he studied Nico’s face until he spoke. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, boy,” was the short, cold reply.

For a few long moments, they just stared at each other. Frustration boiled inside Nico, but he didn’t trust himself to say anything. Not without screaming and getting himself smote in the process. But more than anything, he overwhelmingly felt that this was unfair. Nico had been sucked into Tartarus, kidnapped and tortured by giants, then locked in a claustrophobic jar and left to suffocate. He had watched Percy Jackson fall into Tartarus and nearly gotten himself killed trying to get the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood. To get scolded after all of that, by his god - no, by a  _ father _ \- who thought it was all beneath him, was the epitome of unfairness.

Luckily, he didn’t have the chance to express any of that.

Hades’s expression softened ever so slightly. “I was worried about you,” he said slowly, as if saying the words was as difficult as slowly pushing a needle through his own foot. “No mortal or demigod before you had ever gone to Tartarus, and returned. Even us gods would not dare step foot near there. To see my own son, the best advisor I’ve had, be swept to a place beyond my control…,” his voice trailed off for a moment before he continued. “The last time we spoke was neither the time nor place to bring it up,” Hades concluded, meeting Nico’s eyes firmly.

Nico glanced away, his head swimming. His father’s words left him even more confused than the last time. And he considered Nico his best advisor….

“About that, Dad,” Nico began, looking at the wall behind the throne, unwilling to meet his father’s eyes again. “If it’s alright with you, I, uh, think I’m going to stay at -”

His father interjected. “At Camp Half-Blood.”

Nico looked at him, trying to read his expression, which proved to be about as fruitful as trying to read a brick wall. “Um, yeah,” he stammered.

Hades dipped his head slightly. “Sounds like a fine plan.”

“You’re okay with that?” Nico asked, somewhat surprised.

A faint smirk tugged at the corners of Hades’s lips. “My kingdom will continue to survive even without a fourteen year old boy watching over. Besides, you’ll have plenty of time to serve me one day, when you die.” He said that last part plainly, which Nico understood. Death was inevitable. There was no use in trying not to acknowledge one of the most fundamental truths of the universe. Someday, Nico would die, and he would find himself once more kneeling at the foot of his father’s throne.

Still, Nico was still a bit surprised at how easy this had been. “I...thank you, Father,” he managed to say. 

“It would be nice to see one of my children be happy for once,” Hades replied, smiling faintly now. “Although, I did have your room made up while you were away, and I even had it decorated with those skulls you fancied.”

Nico frowned. He still couldn’t tell if Hades was kidding or not. “Well,” he cleared his throat, “I’m sure it will be lovely for the next time I am here. But if that is all -” Nico had taken a few steps backwards, and had just started to bow, when Hades cut in.

“Actually, my son, there is one more thing.” The smile vanished from Hades’s face, replaced with an expression Nico couldn’t quite make out. “I do not want you anywhere near Tartarus again. If I find out you’ve been there again, even within a hundred feet of it, well….” 

His voice trailed off again, but Nico couldn’t help to laugh. Getting banned from Tartarus was perfectly fine with him. The last thing he ever wanted to do was to go back to that place. “Don’t worry, Father. I won’t go near there again,” he promised. 

As he said the words, he thought he heard Tartarus’s cold distant laugh in the back of his mind. He shrugged it off. That place had been worse than any nightmare could even dream of being. Every so often he found his mind there again, and there was nothing he could do about it. He had to trust that the memories would begin to fade eventually.

Hades seemed satisfied with Nico’s response, though there was a strange glint in his eyes. Before Nico could try to understand what it meant Hades gave him a curt nod and stood, signalling that his audience with the Underworld king had ended.

Nico stood up from his bed and turned on the lights in the cabin. He glanced around. The mahogany bed frames still resembled coffins, and the blankets and pillows were a deep shade of red. Nico didn’t mind the color, though he would have preferred if it were black. The bed frames, however, needed to be replaced. He hadn’t gotten around to talking to Chiron about remodeling the cabin yet, though Will Solace had poked plenty of fun at Nico for being a vampire the one time he stepped inside and looked around a few days ago.

He wondered if Will was awake yet. The son of Apollo usually seemed to be awake by the crack of dawn, as opposed to Nico, who slept in as long as he could - when he wasn’t having nightmares, at least. By the time Nico woke up every day, he usually found Will having freshly showered after a quick morning run. For a healer, the boy was surprisingly athletic.

Of course, Will’s morning routine only seemed to have begun over the past few days. Before that, Will had spent day and night in the infirmary for at least two weeks, tending to injuries that campers had gotten while battling Gaea’s forces. Nico himself had been confined to the infirmary for three days, due to his nearly melting into darkness after doing so much shadow travel and general Underworld magic. Although, the three days consisted less of Nico resting in a bed and more of keeping Will entertained throughout the day while he took care of campers. Throughout that, Will had also insisted on teaching Nico how to properly bandage wounds so he could assist him. At first, it had been a bit awkward. Nico felt out of place as a son of Hades in the infirmary, trying to heal people rather than kill them. But once he got past the initial awkwardness, he had no problems with it. Nico had seen how much Will would overwork himself taking care of so many injured campers, and while he knew he couldn’t stop him, he figured he could at least try to make his job a little bit easier.

That had been a little over a week ago. After his three days were over, he’d decided that he needed to pay his father a visit in the Underworld. Will hadn’t approved of him shadow-traveling there, so Nico took him to the entrance where he had taken Percy what seemed so long ago. Will had argued that he wasn’t musically inclined like his siblings were, but Nico had managed to convince him to sing a few notes so that the passage would open for him. Will didn’t seem too thrilled by the idea of Nico going to the Underworld, but he hadn’t been able to talk him out of it.

Nico opened the door and squinted when the sun shone directly into his eyes. The cabin didn’t have any windows, so he usually had to open the door to figure out how late it was. He made a mental note to also talk with Chiron about getting a clock for the place, though to be honest, he didn’t really care too much about knowing what time it was. Being his own head counselor, he didn’t have to report anywhere at any time, which was welcome due to his preference of working alone. It did get lonely sometimes though. When that happened, he would follow Jason around, since he was also in a cabin by himself, or he would get dragged along by Will to attend camp activities with the Apollo cabin. 

Today, it seemed like he woke up too late for breakfast. Oh, well. It wasn’t like Nico ate that much anyway. At least whoever had inspected the cabins that morning had had the sense to let Nico continue to sleep instead of waking him. If that had happened, Nico couldn’t promise that his newly awoken self wouldn’t have gifted the poor camper a few skeletons in response. 

He let the door swing shut and turned to go get dressed, but glanced back when the sound of the door clicking shut never came. Oh, great. A foot was wedged in between the doorframe and the door, and the owner of that foot didn’t look too happy.

Will Solace’s arms were crossed as he frowned, a few strands of his blond hair falling on his face. He was wearing jeans and an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. His blue eyes remained fixed on Nico as he kicked the door open and walked in. “Where were you?” he demanded.

Nico shrugged. “Asleep.”

Will’s eyes narrowed more, but he uncrossed his arms and let them hang by his side as he glanced around the room. “I didn’t realize vampires sleep,” he replied finally with a smirk, pointing at the coffins in the room. Then his tone turned more stern again. “Seriously you know, it isn’t good for you to be sleeping this much.”

“And how exactly do you know how much I sleep?” Nico retorted.

The boy looked slightly flustered. “I’m, ah, assuming you sleep at a normal time? You don’t even show up to the campfires, so by my calculations, you’ve been sleeping for at least fifteen hours,” he said, holding up ten fingers and pretending to count an extra five. “Unless you’re doing something besides sleeping, like secretly raising the dead in here every night.”

Nico didn’t answer him immediately. Yes, he had been  _ trying _ to sleep for the past fifteen hours. Every time he managed to doze off he would wake up again almost immediately, hearing Tartarus’s chilling laugh and his vision blurred with the images of red landscape. So fifteen hours turned into something closer to three. But he didn’t want to tell Will about that. At the head counselor meeting after the battle with Gaea, Nico had briefly explained his part of the quest, so Will knew everything that had happened while he was gone, but Nico had carefully avoided talking too much about Tartarus. He didn’t want Will to know just how much the experience had messed with his mind. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Doctor Solace,” he finally responded with a shrug, unable to come up with a better explanation.

Thankfully, Will didn’t press the issue. “Well, I’m taking my cabin to the climbing wall today before lunch. Wanna join?” he offered.

Nico racked his brain to come up with a reason not to, but wasn’t able to think of anything fast enough. He agreed with a sigh before kicking Will out of the room so that he could finally get dressed for the day.

Nico’s arms were sore after the climbing wall. He excused himself after eating an apple during lunch, and wandered towards the hills. Before he reached the foot of Half-Blood Hill, Jason ran up to him. “Hey, man,” Jason greeted, slightly out of breath. “I was hoping to catch you sometime before the day ended.”

Nico frowned. “Okay. Why?”

Jason shifted his weight and pulled a scroll out from his pocket. Nico frowned as he took it from Jason and unfurled it, wondering what could be so important that Jason had to find him then. 

As soon as he spread it out, a hologram of Leo appeared above the parchment. “Hey, guys! Sorry to leave you like that,” Leo began. 

As Nico watched the message play, the first thing he felt was shock. “This- this isn’t possible!” he exclaimed to Jason.

Jason shrugged, but he looked excited. “Guess you were wrong. He is alive!”

Then that shock turned to anger. “I felt him die! This isn’t possible. And even if it’s true, how did he do it? He definitely was dead,” Nico protested. “Now he’s suddenly alive again...and this is all he sends?!”

Jason frowned. “Yeah. I’m a bit annoyed about that too,” he agreed. “Listen, though. Piper and I are going to try to find him. We’ve already talked to Chiron about it, he’s authorized us to go on a search mission for Leo. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find him before we have to leave.”

“Leave for where?” Nico asked, his shoulders slumping forwards. He had expected Jason to stay at camp while he worked on his promise to honor the minor gods. 

“I decided to go back to California with Piper. We’re going to go to school together over there.” He paused.

“Oh.” Nico didn’t understand why he felt so disappointed, but he forced a smile. “Sounds like fun. Congratulations?” 

“Thanks.” Jason hesitated. “We’re going to head out to find Leo first thing tomorrow morning. Um, I’m not sure if we’ll be around here much, or at all, before we have to leave for California.”

“Right.”

“Look, I just wanted to let you know, in case I didn’t get a chance to see you later. Wanted to make sure I reached out to my friends before going.”

He let that last sentence hang in the air, but Nico caught his meaning easily enough. Nico had always been somewhat of a loner, and Jason was the first friend he had made, the first person who made him feel less of an outcast. He guessed that Jason wanted to make sure that Nico would be okay even though he was leaving. Nico wanted to feel annoyed by the sentiment, the insinuation that he couldn’t take care of himself, but he wasn’t able to. Despite all his attempts to push people away from him, Jason had managed to become one of the few people he trusted and actually wanted to be around. 

Nico extended his arms. He wasn’t a fan of touching people, and definitely not a fan of hugging. But he also knew that Jason liked to express his friendship more physically, so he allowed Jason to hug him. As Jason’s arms wrapped around him, for once, he didn’t quite feel like pulling away. There was a strange sensation in his stomach, one that he hadn’t felt in a few years, not since right before his sister Bianca had left for her quest with the Hunters.

He finally pulled himself away and forced another smile. “I’ll see you next year then?” 

Jason sighed. “I want to try to visit before then, but we’ll see how it goes. But next year for sure,” he grinned. “Though, I’m not sure you’ll actually want to see me anymore by then,” he added, with a slight gleam in his eyes and a playful tone. “You know, with how close you’re getting to a few specific people in the Apollo cabin, of course.”

It took a moment for the meaning of Jason’s words to register in Nico’s head. As soon as it did, his face flushed. “I- I’m not- I don’t-” he began, but was cut off by a laugh from Jason.

“Yeah, okay, di Angelo. I’ll see you next summer, okay? Oh, and you can keep the scroll! In case you want to get mad about it or something.” 

Jason patted his shoulder, then turned and walked away before Nico could say anything else. He contemplated following him to tell him off, but instead he just sighed. As he watched Jason walk away, the pit in his stomach grew uncomfortably larger, but he forced himself to ignore it. He would see Jason again by the next year, of course assuming that neither of them died a horrible death that was typical of most demigods. But Jason was one of the most powerful demigods Nico had met, second only to Percy, possibly. Nico assured himself that Jason could survive one year of school after having been a praetor of Camp Jupiter, though maybe the homework would kill him.

Nico made his way up the hill and sat down next to Thalia’s pine tree, overlooking the old farm road that most demigods arrived or left by. He knew he should be down at the camp, partaking in the daily activities, but he found himself getting tired after just the first half of the day. After having been on his own so long, being surrounded by so many campers at once drained him of most of his energy faster than he could regain it. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy being around them; the change of pace was nice. But it needed some getting used to.

He didn’t know whether to be angry or relieved about the message from Leo. Obviously, he was glad that Leo was alive. The kid didn’t deserve to die in a horrible explosion. And it helped to ease the sense of guilt Nico had had ever since he let Octavian kill himself, a small part of his brain always wondering about how if he had done things differently, would Leo have survived? 

But on the other hand, Nico  _ knew _ that Leo had died. He had felt his death as clearly as night and day. Sure, it had felt a bit different than other deaths Nico usually felt. But there was no mistaking the fact that Leo had died for sure. So how had he come back to life?

Whatever. The important thing was that Leo was at least alive. And now Jason and Piper would go try to find him and bring him back to camp. Nico hoped that they would succeed, and that he would be able to see Jason again before they left for California. 

He picked at the grass on the hill, trying to force Jason out of his mind. Unfortunately, his thoughts almost immediately drifted back to Bianca instead. With a pang, he remembered when they had said goodbye for the last time. Nico had already been upset with her for joining the Hunters and leaving him behind . He would have given anything to be able to go back and talk to her again before she left. Or even now, to be able to talk to her ghost. But she had applied for rebirth, and now he would never see her again.

_ If she saw what happened to me ever since she left, would she still make the same choice? _ Nico couldn’t help but wonder. Then he chided himself. She made her choice four years ago. None of this was her fault. 

For years, Nico had blamed Percy for what happened to Bianca. He had tried to resent him for so long, but slowly realized that, more than anything, he wanted to resent him because it was better than the alternative. Even now, after having admitted his crush to Percy just a couple of weeks ago, he still felt somewhat angry at himself for giving in so easily, for letting himself accept something he had grown up believing was wrong.

Jason had assured him that it was nothing to be ashamed of, and that his friends would support him no matter what. Nico hadn’t believed him at the time, but he tried to think about the words every day and convince himself they were true. Even Percy and Annabeth hadn’t cared when he had admitted his crush. So why did he keep blaming himself for feeling it? Besides, his feelings had passed.

A shout pierced Nico’s thoughts. He strained his eyes in the direction of the noise and saw a tanned, muscular boy run out from behind the trees and towards the farm road. Following closely behind him were what looked like two extremely large black dogs quickly gaining on him. By the looks of it, the boy wouldn’t be able to make it up the hill before he got ripped to shreds by the hellhounds.

Nico stood up and cursed. Like an idiot, he hadn’t brought his sword with him. It would take too long to find a camper to help him. Without thinking it through, he started to run down the hill. He knew he wouldn't be able to get down there in time. Even if he did, what would he be able to do about it? 

Nico stopped running and concentrated, holding his palm out and closing his eyes. A moment later, a large black spire erupted from the ground between the boy and the hellhounds, causing the hellhounds to skid to a halt to avoid running into it. It had bought him a few seconds.

Immediately, the world around Nico became fuzzier. He blinked hard, forcing his vision to come back into focus, and ground his feet into the earth so that he wouldn’t fall over. 

The boy had seen Nico by now and had started running towards him. 

“Get to the top of the hill!” Nico yelled. “You’ll be safe there!” Then he shot down again, running towards the hellhounds, trying to come up with a plan. 

When he reached the bottom of the hill, he planted his feet firmly in the ground and held out his hand again. They were hellhounds. They came from the Underworld. So theoretically - no, more like  _ hopefully _ , Nico would be able to command them. 

“Stop,” he ordered. 

They didn’t stop.

Nico fought down a swell of panic and looked one of the hellhounds in the eyes. He repeated the word, but this time in Ancient Greek. He thought he saw a flicker of hesitation in the hellhound’s eyes, before it lunged for him.

Nico rolled out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid one of the hellhound’s claws raking his arm. His vision blurred again, but he forced himself to his feet and yelled. “I AM THE SON OF HADES.  _ YOU. WILL. OBEY. ME. _ ”

The hellhounds both stopped and glared at him, growling. Nico sensed he had only a moment to make them do something before they broke free of his control. He glanced up the hill and saw the boy just make it up to Thalia’s tree. He turned and looked down at Nico and the hellhounds. Nico couldn’t read his expression from so far away.

He tried to figure out what to say to the hellhounds, but he could feel their impatience growing. The closest hellhound clawed at the ground as it glared into Nico’s eyes, a droplet of drool making its way from the corner of its mouth. 

Nico focused on steadying his breathing. Blood dripped from his throbbing arm onto the dead grass around his feet. He could barely keep his surroundings in focus, and he could feel his energy seeping out of him. “Go home,” Nico managed to say, pouring all the rest of his energy into the two words.

With a deafening crack, the earth opened before him, swallowing the two hellhounds just before they lunged at him, their fangs bared and claws extended. As soon as they were gone, Nico collapsed to the ground, letting the world around him fade away.


	2. Nico

Nico woke up feeling disoriented and confused about his surroundings. He was in a bright room, in a bed that wasn’t his, with a few more empty beds surrounding him. Across the room sat a muscular and heavily tanned boy, the toes of his shoes tapping the floor impatiently. He looked a year or two older than Nico, making him about sixteen. He was nodding in response to another boy who spoke to him in a gentle tone. 

Nico blinked, his memories returning. That was the boy he had saved, on Half-Blood Hill, and Will Solace was lecturing him on how to take care of his wounds. Which meant that Nico was in the infirmary. Again.

With an exasperated sigh Nico tried to sit up, but he collapsed with a groan as pain shot up his arm. The world spun in circles around him; his vision blurred as he tried to blink it back into focus. Will glanced back and frowned at him. “Don’t move,” he instructed, before turning back to the boy to finish their conversation. 

The boy nodded and stood up. He walked out of the room after saying something to Will in a language that sounded familiar to Nico, but not familiar enough for him to place it . Will took another glance at Nico, but quickly looked away and fumbled with some supplies on a nearby tray. Nico watched as he took out extra bandages and put away tools for what felt like an eternity before Will finally strolled over to him, holding something that looked dangerously like a baby bottle.

“Drink,” Will ordered, holding the bottle to Nico’s lips. “It’s nectar.”

Nico leaned back, trying to put some separation between the rubber tip and his face. “You want me to drink from that?”

The son of Apollo rolled his eyes. “Yes, O Great Master of Big Dogs. You need to regain your strength.”

Reluctantly, Nico obliged. Partially because he knew he wouldn’t win this argument, and partially because he really wanted that nectar before he passed out again. He could already feel his consciousness starting to drift. 

His body felt warmer as he sipped, and he felt his strength seeping back into his exhausted muscles. “Thanks,” he muttered, already knowing what was about to happen as he watched Will pull up a chair to the bed. Will sat down, crossing his arms and waiting for Nico to finish.

“That’s enough, anymore and you’ll burn up,” he said, pulling the bottle away. “Though I guess that would be a welcome change from nearly turning into a shadow every other day,” he added with a quick glare, the exasperation clear as day on his face.

Nico pulled himself upright. It took a few painful moments, but he was grateful to Will for not stepping in to help him. He already felt like enough of a loser without getting fussed over every move he made. “Look,” he started defensively, “I didn’t have a choice.”

Will cut in. “You could have yelled for help, or found Chiron, or done literally anything other than nearly kill yourself with a bunch of Underworld-y magic. What were you thinking? Do you have a death wish? You’re not invincible, you know.”

Nico sighed and let his back slump against the wall. “It would be really nice if everyone wasn’t so mad at me all the time,” he muttered under his breath, but the words came out slightly louder than he had meant to.

Will blinked a few times, looking taken aback. “Nico, I’m not mad at you,” he said. “Well, maybe a little. I’m just worried about you.”

Nico rolled his eyes before raising an eyebrow. “You sound like my dad.”

Will laughed. Nico began to relax a little, but the skeletal butterflies in his stomach began to flutter as well. “I assure you, that’s  _ definitely not _ what I was going for,” Will replied with a smirk.

Nico wondered what he  _ was _ going for then. He remembered what Jason had said to him before, about “getting extra friendly with certain members of the Apollo cabin”. He shook the thought out of his head. _ You’re being ridiculous _ , he scolded himself.

“Hey, I’m bound to be worried if I see my best friend getting carried into camp in the arms of a new handsome buff guy,” Will continued.

Best friend? Nico was surprised by the title. And Will calling the new kid a  _ handsome buff guy _ ? Nico looked down at his lap. Somehow, he managed to feel both excited and annoyed at the same time. The butterflies flew around faster, bouncing off the walls of his gut. Nico tried to calm himself down, but as his heart rate slowed he began to wonder when he had last eaten. 

“How long have I been out?” Nico asked, genuinely curious, but also eager to change the subject before he said something he would probably regret. “And who’s the new guy, anyway? Has he been claimed yet?”

Will leaned back in his chair, exhaling slowly as he processed Nico’s questions. “It’s almost lunch now, so it’s been a little bit less than a full day. So you slept through the whole night. And the new camper’s name is Paolo Montes. He’s from Brazil. That’s all we’ve been able to get from him so far. He can understand us, but he only speaks in Portuguese.”

Oh. That was why the language had sounded familiar to Nico. He was fluent in Italian, a language which shared some similarities to Portuguese. 

“And his parent?” Nico asked again, unslumping himself from the wall.

Will shrugged. “No idea yet. He was in the infirmary all night too, so I guess there hasn’t been a chance for whoever it is to claim him so far.” Will’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “He had a bad cut in his calf, but it’s pretty much all healed now. He heals so fast, I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s  _ incredible _ .”

Nico chose not to respond to that last statement. “Maybe I can talk to him later. I might be able to understand him, figure out more about him.”  _ He’s incredible,  _ the words echoed in his mind. Nico tried to shake the thought. Why did it matter to him if Will thought the new, handsome, buff guy was  _ incredible _ ?

Will nodded, smiling as he stood up. “That could be good. I know I would hate to be surrounded by people who couldn’t understand me.” He stretched his arms in front of him, flexing his fingers. Nico felt like he had had some experience with the whole being-surrounded-by-people-who-didn’t-understand-him deal, but he decided not to point that out.

Will stifled a yawn.

“Almost a full day, huh?” Nico asked, slowly twirling the ring on his finger. “You’ve been here the whole time?”

Will shrugged again. “Well, I wouldn’t say it was the  _ whole _ time. I got dinner.”

“Did you sleep?”

Now it was Will’s turn to look away from Nico. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s just take a look at your arm.” 

Nico let the topic slide, but silently cursed himself for getting hurt and making Will overwork himself again. He deserved a break more than anyone.

As Will carefully unwrapped the bandage around his upper arm, Nico found himself counting the freckles on Will’s face. His skin looked as if it was glowing with a radiant shine. The freckles were splayed across his nose and cheeks, reminding Nico of the dark patches on the sun he had seen when Camp Half-Blood had set up telescopes a few years ago. Nico vaguely recalled Lee Fletcher explaining that those patches were called sunspots, which Nico thought was a pretty uncreative name.

Will glanced at him, then frowned. “Do I have something on my face?” he asked.

“What?”

“You were staring.” Will craned his neck to look into a nearby mirror.

“Uh, no I wasn’t,” Nico protested, hastily looking down at his lap again. “I just zoned out.”

Will opened his mouth as if to say something, but then just smirked. “Whatever, dude.” He grabbed a jar off of the tray next to him.

Nico bit back a curse and flinched as Will gently massaged a stinging cream into his wound. He closed his eyes and forced his breathing to go back to normal. Will muttered an apology before turning back to his tray, picking up some gauze and a roll of bandages. 

“Almost done,” Will said with the same gentle tone he had used with Paolo. His voice was incredibly soothing, and Nico felt his muscles involuntarily relax. He watched Will’s fingers as they wrapped the bandage around his arm. “So,” Will started, breaking the few moments of silence, “how have your dreams been lately?”

Nico inhaled sharply. “They’re fine. Why?” He struggled to keep his voice level, not wanting to give anything away.

“Just normal demigod dreams, I guess?” he pushed. When Nico failed to answer, Will glanced up and met his eyes. “You were talking in your sleep.”

Nico groaned inwardly. “What did I say?”

Will looked back down at Nico’s arm. It looked like he had already finished wrapping it, but his fingers continued to play with the edge of the bandage. “Something about Tartarus, and forgetting something?” He looked uncomfortable. Nico suspected that Will was worried about how he would react to being confronted. He also suspected that Will had possibly heard him say more but was keeping quiet for Nico’s own benefit.

Nico jerked his arm away after Will finally tucked in the bandage. “It’s nothing,” he muttered angrily. “Don’t worry about it. Normal demigod dreams. Just forget I said anything. Just- leave me alone, okay?”

Will took a step back, his hands raised in a placating,  _ you-win _ gesture. “Got it. Hey, I’m just gonna go clean up and then find my cabin, okay? You rest up and I’ll come grab you before dinner.” Without waiting for a response, Will turned and walked out of the room.

As soon as he left, Nico slowly lowered himself onto his back and took a few slow breaths. He stared at the bumps on the ceiling of the infirmary, that last part of their conversation repeating itself in Nico’s thoughts. He found himself involuntarily thinking of different ways he could have handled it better, particularly dwelling on the harsh tone he had used with Will. Nico decided that he would have to go find him and apologize later.

_ Apologize? _ Nico asked himself. Since when did he do that? Although he didn’t quite understand why, he still felt obligated to find Will and make sure his feelings weren’t hurt too badly. The son of Apollo could be annoying at times, but Nico didn’t want to push away the one person at camp who genuinely seemed to want Nico around.

Nico yawned. He hadn’t felt tired earlier, but a wave of drowsiness washed over him. He tried to resist for a moment, but he finally gave in and let his consciousness drift away into darkness.

Surprisingly, Nico was able to sleep without having any nightmares about Tartarus. He had learned to take control of his dreams recently, but in the past few days he seemed to have lost the ability altogether. Now, for the first time in a long while, he woke up feeling refreshed. While he welcomed the change of pace, he actually felt more worried than relieved. He wondered what could have changed to make that happen.

He closed his eyes again and rolled to his side, hoping to be able to catch more of that rare, restful sleep before he had to wake up.

“Hey.” Nico felt a hand land on his shoulder, nudging him softly. “It’s almost time for dinner. You manage to get some sleep?”

Nico’s first instinct was to swing a punch, but he forced himself to remain still. He opened his eyes to see Will looking down at him, a small smile illuminating his face. At first Nico wanted to be angry at Will for waking him up the one time he was able to sleep properly, but a single look at his face caused his anger to melt into a swirling mess of contentment and peace. And then confusion about why he felt that way. 

He sat up, wincing in anticipation of the pain that would shoot up his arm, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the pain had mostly subsided. Whatever Will had done earlier had worked well. “Yeah, actually. Thanks,” Nico replied.

As Nico lifted himself out of his bed, Will took a step back and watched him. He still had a hint of a smile on his face, but his blue eyes betrayed concern. Memories of their recent conversation flooded back into Nico’s head. 

He took a breath. “Will, about earlier-”

Will cut him off with a quick wave of his hand, his smile vanishing. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” He glanced around, as if looking for an escape route.

Nico should have been relieved by that, but he wasn’t. Will had made it easy for him to not apologize and move on, but it felt wrong. He felt bad about the way he’d spoken to him earlier. “No, it’s not,” he said. “I shouldn’t have reacted like that.” He struggled to get the words out. He had never apologized to anyone for pushing them away before. Normally he hated when others tried to learn more about him. 

“Okay, you’re right,” Will conceded. “You probably shouldn’t have.” 

“Yeah, so I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” Nico gazed at Will, unable to read his expression. “I was just caught off guard.” Nico pushed a few strands of hair out of his eyes. “And you’re right. I’ve been having worse dreams lately, but it’s just not something I want to talk about right now.” The words spilled out of his mouth.

Will was silent. Nico began to wonder if he had said something wrong. Finally, the smile returned to his friend’s face. “Okay, apology accepted,” he said. Nico felt warm with gratitude. He was worried that Will would try to get more information out of him, but he had actually respected his boundaries. “Let’s go for dinner?”

Nico smiled. “Dinner sounds great.”

That night, for dinner, they were served meatloaf and mashed potatoes with a large side of gravy. Nico had more of an appetite than normal, so he served himself a hefty meal. It was more food than he had eaten in the last three or four days combined.

Nico sat alone. He poked at his food with his fork, wondering if he had made a mistake taking so much. There was no way he would be able to finish it.

Nico gritted his teeth as chattering voices filled the air around him. He hated being forced to sit alone at his table every night. It was one thing to choose to be alone, but another to have no choice at all. 

It was only two weeks ago when he would sit with Percy and Jason for dinner. They had somehow managed to convince Chiron to combine their three separate seating arrangements into a single “Big Three Table”. It had been some of the most fun that Nico had at camp, at least while it had lasted, even though he was never as lively as Percy or Jason. But Percy had left for school after only a few days, and Jason had left this morning. So now, even with a “Big Three Table,” Nico was utterly alone. He wished he had been awake to see Jason and Piper off.

A familiar laugh pierced the air. Nico looked up to see the Apollo cabin chatting and laughing with each other. Will’s back was towards Nico, but he could see his shoulders vibrating with laughter. Nico stabbed his fork into the wooden table, trying to control his anger as he glared at the Apollo kids. 

Nico hated himself for feeling so jealous of Austin, who, from what he could gather, had told a funny joke that warranted Will’s undivided attention. Nico knew he was being ridiculous and overreacting. Austin was his brother. Of course they would be so close, and Will was allowed to spend time with his own siblings. But still, Nico wasn’t able to shake the envy from his thoughts.

Something suddenly moved in his periphery. Before Nico could realize what was happening, there was a scream from the Aphrodite table. The campers shot to their feet as three zombies shuffled towards the dining pavilion. 

. Within seconds they had been taken down. Kayla shot one with her bow, while Sherman Yang decapitated the remaining two with his sword. All three disintegrated, followed by silence. The campers looked at Nico.

“Oh, um, sorry about that,” Nico fumbled. “Guess I just wasn’t paying attention.”

Most of the campers shrugged and went back to eating their food, but he could feel Chiron’s disapproving stare. He noticed Will glance at him before sitting back down to eat with his siblings. 

Nico sighed. He figured he would get called to the Big House later to talk about it with Chiron. With his luck, he would end up getting a lecture about “being more careful” and needing to “be able to take care of himself when he’s older”. As if he hadn’t gotten enough of those lectures already from Will and his father, the  _ god _ of those who clearly once hadn’t taken good enough care of themselves.

Nico decided he wasn’t hungry anymore and stood up with his plate of food. He saw Chiron raise an eyebrow at him, but he ignored it as he walked to the altar to scrape the rest of his food into the fire. “Hades,” he murmured, before dumping his plate in the bucket nearby and leaving to hike back to his cabin.


	3. Will

Will watched with a twinge of sympathy as Nico trudged away from the dining pavilion, his shoes scuffing the ground and his hands burrowed deep in his pockets. Will had spent enough time around the son of Hades to know he hadn’t meant to summon the zombie. His powers to control the dead seemed to occasionally get out of his control, especially when his emotions were running high. Unfortunately, Will also knew that this was why the other campers felt uneasy around Nico. Also unfortunately, he was sure Nico’s isolation was serving to make his emotional state even worse, creating a negative feedback loop. 

Will wished there was more he could do to help. That was actually part of the reason why he had decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood in the first place, as opposed to returning home for the summer instead. Not that he  _ didn’ _ t miss his mom and sister back in Texas, but he felt more needed here. After all, someone needed to stick around to discourage everyone else from receiving life-threatening injuries. Which, Will thought, they should know anyway, but you never knew what would happen during a particularly intense game of Capture-the-Flag.

“Dude,” Kayla cut into his thoughts, playfully shoving his shoulder with her fist. “Just ask him out already.”

Will realized that he had been staring at Nico while he walked away, and hastily turned back to his meal. He twiddled with his fork and started to gather his food into another bite. “But what if he doesn’t like me?” he protested, not thinking through the words before blurting them out.

Kayla and Austin both laughed, and fist-bumped each other. “I knew it!” Kayla remarked, looking aggravatingly satisfied with herself. With dismay, Will realized that he had just admitted that he did have a crush on his extremely pale, dark-haired friend who seemed to give everyone besides him the creeps. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Will argued, and glared down at his food. He ignored the clink of a golden drachma being slid across the table to Kayla.

“Sure,” she agreed, though she was clearly trying to contain her giggles.

Okay, maybe the big reason he was staying was because he liked Nico. But he also wanted to stay because he was worried about going home. Naomi Solace was the most gentle and accepting person he knew, and he was grateful to have her as his mom. But despite this Will found himself afraid to tell her he had a crush on a boy. Just a few months ago, she had been so excited to learn he had a girlfriend. Now, he wasn’t sure how she would feel after learning he was more interested in a boy now than he ever had been in Alicia Stillwell, daughter of Aphrodite. 

Then, of course, there was the matter of Apollo himself. No one had heard from him in two weeks - which, normally, wasn’t a big deal for an Olympian. After all, the gods were known to miss entire centuries chasing after a new fling, or even just napping. But hearing from Piper about Zeus punishing Apollo, on top of him being missing during the camp’s spontaneous field trip to Olympus after the battle with Gaea, had made Will grow increasingly more concerned about his father. Especially with Rachel no longer having her creepy Oracle powers.

“You gonna go after him, bro?” 

Will turned to Austin, who was taking another bite of his food while watching him intently, his eyebrows raised.

Will shrugged. “He probably wants to be left alone.” Will  _ did _ want to go after him, but he figured that Nico needed some space. 

Will used to want more space not too long ago, when the Apollo cabin was the second largest cabin at Camp Half-Blood. But now, the Apollo cabin only consisted of Will, Austin, and Kayla. Out of the three of them, Will had the most seniority, having been at Camp Half-Blood since he was eleven. Soon after he had joined, his two older brothers, Lee Fletcher and Michael Yew, had both died in the months leading up to as well as the fight with Kronos. That left him with the most experience, and by default, he had become the new head counselor. He often dreamed about them in his sleep, wishing he could have been closer to them when they had each fallen. He knew that if he could have just been a better fighter, or been a little bit faster, he might have been able to save them both. 

His guilt only grew after the battle with Gaea. After losing two of the cabin’s youngest members, he felt he failed not only as a head counselor, but as a brother as well. Even Kayla had nearly died. Will remembered spending three days straight in the infirmary, too terrified to leave her side.

“Hmm,” Austin responded as he finished chewing. “Or maybe you’re just too chicken. I bet you can’t even ask him to come to the campfire tonight.”

Will sighed, rolling his eyes at Austin. “You know just as well as I do that he’ll never come to the campfire.” Then he added, teasingly, “It’s probably because he hates your campfire songs, to be honest.”

“Hey!” Austin did a good job at sounding offended, but his expression gave away his nonchalance. He had always been confident in his skills, never caring about what other people thought of him. “If he doesn’t like the sax, then there’s something wrong with that kid, not me.”

Kayla laughed. “Seriously though. Will, maybe you should go ask Nico to join us. You said he sleeps in a coffin, right? Maybe he can’t go without being formally invited.”

Will tried not to laugh. He felt bad that his siblings were constantly making fun of the dark, brooding son of Hades, but sometimes he felt the kid brought it on himself. For example, the vampire jokes were  _ definitely _ warranted. “Alright, you win,” he said, standing up after taking one last bite. “I’ll go ask him.”

Kayla and Austin both loudly cheered, causing campers at the other table to look over. Will felt a slight warmth creeping up into his cheeks, but he just laughed and patted his siblings’ shoulders. “You’re both awful,” he chided them before finally walking away.

  
  


Will found Nico sitting outside, his back pressed against the obsidian wall of the Hades cabin. The patch of grass around him had wilted and died, and Nico was clearly in the middle of an intense procedure that involved plucking the dead grass out of the ground and twisting the strands tightly between his fingers.

“Wow, what did your lawn ever do to you?” Will whistled.

Nico looked up, and in the dim light cast from the moon, Will could see that his eyes were red, as if he had been crying. He considered bringing it up, but then decided he actually valued his own life.

“I guess I just destroy everything that I’m around,” Nico answered, his voice hollow.

Will tried to come up with a response to that. Nico had never been this open before. In fact, he had a creeping suspicion that Nico had never been that open with  _ anyone  _ before. 

Nico shook his head and cleared his throat. “Never mind. I didn’t mean that,” he stated, trying to sound monotone, but coming off as dismissive instead. 

“Sure you didn’t,” Will replied, sitting down next to Nico, the separation between their shoulders painfully large for Will’s liking. When Nico remained silent, Will spoke again. “So, about the dining pavilion.” He left the sentence at that, allowing Nico to take the lead and steer the conversation himself.

Nico shrugged. “Didn’t mean to. Happens sometimes I guess. I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”

“Like what?”

Nico looked uncomfortable, and a few long moments passed before he said anything else. “I guess I’ve just been thinking about my sister a lot lately.”

Will frowned, trying to figure out why thinking about Hazel would have upset Nico that much. Did he miss her? He could always go visit her if he wanted. It wasn’t like Nico ever paid attention to the rules. That wouldn’t be the reason that Nico had been so moody lately.

Then he remembered. “Bianca,” he said out loud. Will barely remembered her. He had arrived at camp barely a week before Percy, Thalia, and the Hunters had arrived with Bianca and Nico. And Bianca had left within days of that. His memory of her was fuzzy.

Nico nodded. “I thought I had gotten over it, but I guess I haven’t. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to adjust to camp life.”

Will let the words sink in and counted to ten to make sure he didn’t react too strongly to the insinuation that Nico was considering leaving. “Losing a sibling is hard,” he finally said. His thoughts drifted to Lee and Michael again. It had been about a year now since he had watched helplessly as Michael fell to his death.

Nico exhaled slowly. “Oh. You would get it.” He looked over at Will with a sheepish glint in his eyes. “I never thought about what it must have been like for you.”

Will flexed his hand out in front of him and studied his fingers before replying. “What happened, happened. I’ve made my peace with it.” As soon as he said the words, he regretted it. He worried that it would come across as condescending to Nico.

To his surprise, Nico was nodding. “You’re right,” he agreed. “I’m working on it.” Nico stood up and motioned at the door. “I’m gonna try to get some sleep now.”

“Wait, so you’re not coming to the campfire?” Will asked, hastily rising to his feet and nearly bumping his head on a decorative skull.

Another surprise from Nico: he laughed and shook his head. “Come on, did you think I was going to?”

“It’ll be fun!” Will protested.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Listen, Solace, if you ever think that I would sing songs and hang out with you to  _ have fun _ , then you’re mistaken.”

It took Will a moment to realize that Nico was teasing him. “So, you would come and hang out with me… if you didn’t have fun?”

Nico looked flustered. “I-what? No! I’m never going to the campfire. Nothing you say will change my mind.”

Will took a step closer to him, using his very slightly larger frame to try and make himself seem more intimidating. As if anyone could be as intimidating as the son of Hades himself. “Listen here, Death Boy. I’ll let you go today. But next time, watch out. You’re coming to the campfire whether you like it or not.  _ And _ ,” he added, pointing a finger at his chest to add extra emphasis, “ _ you are going to hang out with me. _ ”

With that, Will turned away and started to head over to the fire pit. He didn’t want to give Nico a chance to argue with him, and he was also a bit too nervous about what he had just said to wait around and see how Nico reacted to his statement about them hanging out.

  
  


The campfire started out with a few announcements, the first few of which Will only barely heard because he was still too busy thinking about his conversation with Nico. Gods, Nico was dense sometimes. Will couldn’t understand how he was so oblivious to what Will thought had been a pretty good attempt at flirting. Then again, he had walked off before Nico could say something. Maybe Austin was right, and Will was a chicken.

He tried to shake the thoughts of Nico out of his mind and pay attention to the announcements. First, Chiron touched on the arrival of Paolo, who seemed to have found himself surrounded by a group of girls who all insisted they were just trying to make sure he felt welcome in his new home. Paolo had been claimed by Hebe, the goddess of youth. 

Will gazed at his arms, which were heavily tanned and bore well-defined muscles. Then he let his gaze drop to his leg, which was now free of the bandages he had wrapped around him. The cut was almost completely healed, with a scar in its place that Will doubted would last for long at the speed with which Paolo healed. 

The second announcement was a reminder to avoid travelling to the camp borders alone, and that all campers should always carry a weapon on them.

When they reached the topic of Apollo, Chiron just sighed. “Still no word from him or any of the other Olympians about his whereabouts.” He paused. “I’m sure it’s nothing to be worried about. The gods are busy. Even Mr. D has been unable to return to camp, as I am sure you are all aware.”

A murmur rippled through the camp. Will exchanged uncertain glances with Kayla and Austin. The three of them had been worried. Sure, they had never even met Apollo before. He was probably a terrible dad, given the fact. But he was one of the twelve Olympians, and besides, if something happened to him, what did that mean for his children?

Will shook his head and tried to smile. He was as worried as his siblings were, but as head counselor, he felt it was his responsibility to remain calm no matter what. In fact, he found himself doing that around the other campers as well. Over the years, he’d discovered that a simple touch and a change in intonation served to calm others quickly. It was a skill that often came in handy.

Lastly, Chiron spoke about the Labyrinth. “As you all have heard,” Chiron began, “the Labyrinth has resurfaced. Our friend Hazel discovered this on her quest.” 

The campers were all silent, waiting for Chiron to continue. The older members of the camp had had enough bad experiences with the Labyrinth already. 

“It now falls upon us to discover what the new nature of the Labyrinth is, now that it is no longer connected to Daedalus’s life force. And we must make sure that it cannot be used against us anymore by anyone who could be a threat to the safety of the camp. In order to do this, we will launch a few expeditions, led by our own campers, into the Labyrinth. These will begin tomorrow.”

The campers turned and started talking to each other. Will could see the Ares cabin talking amongst themselves excitedly, the Aphrodite cabin mostly looking bored, and the Athena cabin with their eyes lit up at the prospect of the Labyrinth’s survival.

One voice rang up from the Hephaestus cabin. Nyssa had stood up. Her hair was tied back with a red bandanna and grease was smeared on her arms. “Don’t we need a prophecy for these quests?”

Chiron shook his head. “If they were quests, then yes, we would need a prophecy.. However, as we’re all aware, our Oracle has lost her connection to the cave of Delphi. Prophecies are still not coming through. Therefore we will have to execute these  _ expeditions _ without the guidance of any prophecies.”

Will noticed how Chiron emphasized the word  _ expeditions _ , clearly in an attempt to justify going into the Labyrinth without a prophecy. A glance around at the rest of the campers told him that they had arrived at that conclusion as well. Still, no one dared to point it out.

“Any campers who are interested in leading the expeditions to the Labyrinth may come speak to me either now, or later at the Big House,” Chiron concluded, before taking a few steps back, signalling that the announcements had ended and that the Apollo cabin could take charge of the campfire songs.

As Austin led the campfire with a rendition of  _ Hotel Mt. Olympus  _ on his saxophone, Will wasn’t sure how he felt about the quests - sorry,  _ expeditions _ , into the Labyrinth. His own experience with the maze was limited, having never stepped foot in it, but he still hated that it had resurfaced. He was still new to the whole demigod thing when the camp was attacked by Luke’s army through the Labyrinth. That was when his first head counselor, Lee Fletcher, had died, and it was the first time he had truly realized how dangerous being a demigod was. 

He had been relieved when Nico killed Daedalus - which had also been terrifying, by the way. The last time he had seen Nico, the kid had seemed, well, like a kid. And then he returned and killed the oldest demigod alive, just by holding his sword and speaking. 

Regardless, he had been relieved when Daedalus had died and let the maze die with him. It meant that the camp was safe again. Will and his siblings would be safe again. The fact that it had come back unsettled him. He wanted nothing to do with the place.

Kayla leaned in towards Will. “I think I’ll talk to Chiron about exploring the Labyrinth.”

Will stared at her. Had she been reading his mind? “Uh, you mean, tell him that it’s a bad idea and convince him we shouldn’t do it?” he asked, but even as he said the words, he knew that that wasn’t what Kayla would think.

“No, we need to explore it. We need to make sure it’s safe.”

“But why us?” Will tried not to whine. 

“Well, you don’t need to. But I’m going.” Kayla paused for a moment. “There’s so few campers staying for the year, Chiron’s going to need as many of us as possible to help out.”

Will groaned. He knew she was right. But he also knew that she had no idea how dangerous the Labyrinth could be. She hadn’t arrived at camp until after the Battle of Labyrinth, right as the war with Kronos was starting to gain pace. She had only heard about the Labyrinth before, never seen the aftermath of its existence.

And also, as much as he didn’t want to, he knew that if his sister was going to go into the Labyrinth, he wouldn’t let her go in there without him. He would never let any of his siblings go in there without him. Sure, he wasn’t much of a fighter, but he just couldn’t let them walk into danger without making sure there was someone there to take care of them.

“No. If you go, I’ll go,” he assured his sister. 

Kayla looked relieved. “I’ll go talk to Chiron then.”


	4. Will

They entered the Labyrinth the next morning, much to Will’s annoyance. He wasn’t sure how Kayla had managed it, but for some reason, him, Kayla, and Austin were chosen to be the first group of campers to start exploring the maze’s tunnels. They had woken up at first light, and a growing sense of unease flooded his thoughts as he packed his backpack with various medicinal supplies. 

Will felt painfully inadequate compared to his siblings. Kayla had her bow, and Austin could inflict a decent amount of damage using his saxophone. But all Will could do was take care of people after they had already gotten themselves hurt. What if he wound up dragging his siblings down because they would try to protect him? What if he would become the reason, yet again, that he had to watch something horrific happen to the people he cared about?

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Zipping up his backpack, he slung it over his shoulders and turned around. “You guys ready?” he asked in a low voice, not looking forward to what was about to unfold.

Kayla’s face looked surprisingly grim. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” she replied.

Only Austin looked unfazed as his fingers curled around the tube of his saxophone, which was hanging around his neck. “Let’s do this,” he announced, determination lacing his voice.

The three of them stepped out into the misty morning air. Most of the camp still seemed to be asleep. Will tended to wake up around now anyway, so this wasn’t new to him. The lingering sense of dread and trepidation was, though.

Without realizing he was doing it, Will scanned around the empty camp for signs of Nico. With a sigh, he accepted that the grumpy son of Hades would still be asleep anyway. There was no point in hoping otherwise. Still, it would have been nice to at least be able to talk to the only person at camp who had been in the Labyrinth before. Oh well.

They made their way to the Big House, where they found Chiron standing outside with his tail swishing impatiently behind him. There was toothpaste in his scruffy beard, which made Will think that Chiron had forced himself to get out of bed far earlier than he would have wanted to. 

“The closest entrance is by Zeus’s Fist,” the old centaur explained, his voice still sounding a bit hoarse (pun unintended), as if he had just rolled out of bed. “You’ll have no problem there yourselves?” he asked.

Kayla nodded. “Of course.”

And with that, they were off.

They had no trouble finding Zeus’s Fist, which only actually looked like a fist from one very specific angle, supposedly. Over his several years at camp, Will had never figured out what that angle was supposed to be. He followed Kayla towards a crevice in between the rocks, where he had seen Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover vanish a couple of years before. 

“This is it,” he murmured, as Kayla stepped forward and vanished into darkness. Will followed, letting Austin bring up the rear.

A moment later, Will found himself in a narrow tunnel, the ground sloping downwards as it went deeper into the Labyrinth. He turned to find the entrance, but behind him was solid stone with the symbol of Daedalus glowing faintly.

The tunnel was dark, the only light coming from Kayla’s bow and Austin’s saxophone, both of which were glowing faintly.

“Um, maybe we should have brought flashlights,” Austin said, his voice having lost some of its previous vigor.

They all stared at each other until Kayla offered, “I guess we could still go back and get some.”

_ Damn it. _ Will knew that if they turned back, he would never be able to convince himself to reenter the Labyrinth again. “No, you guys, I got it,” he sighed resignedly, as he began unbuttoning his flannel.

Austin stared at him, dumbfounded. “Dude, why are you taking off your shirt?”

Will didn’t bother answering. Kayla was busy clearly trying not to laugh. She had seen this before. Once when she had snuck up on him, Will, in his startled state, had discovered a cool new power he hadn’t known that he had before.

He folded his shirt and tucked it into his backpack, now just wearing an uncomfortable thin white tank top. It left him feeling a bit cold, but he ignored the feeling. He would rather be cold than have to convince himself all over again to follow his siblings on a suicide mission.

Will closed his eyes, concentrating. A moment later he opened them again and found himself able to make out his siblings’ faces much more easily.

“Bro!” Austin exclaimed. “You can glow!” His brother paused for a moment, furrowing his brows, before his face lit up with mischievous glee. “A  _ glow-bro _ ,” he whispered with a giggle.

Will rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the warmth spreading through his cheeks. “Fun gift from our dad, I guess.”

They were all silent when he said that. Will silently cursed himself for not watching his words more carefully. The last thing he should be doing is unnecessarily worrying his younger siblings right now, making them think about the missing Olympian.

“Alright, then,” Kayla, the leader of their expedition, finally said, breaking the silence. “Onwards into darkness we go.”

They walked in a single file line behind Kayla, with Austin flanking the back again. Will supposed that his brother and sister had come to an agreement before, that Will would stay in the middle because he wasn’t a fighter. Which, of course, made him feel more useless than ever. But he tried to ignore it and focus at least on the more helpful fact - that if either of them got hurt, he would be right next to them to make sure that they would be okay.

The tunnel’s walls narrowed as it descended further into darkness. Will tried to keep his teeth from chattering as the hair on his arms stood up straight in the cold air. He still didn’t understand how the three of them, children of the sun god, had managed to get themselves into a place so unwelcoming of their very existence. Being underground, Will decided, was probably his least favorite experience of all time.

The tunnel forked into two paths. The path on the right looked older, the ground covered in cobblestone, and vines growing along the walls. The left path appeared more modern, with fluorescent lights lining the ceiling. The tunnel almost seemed to resemble a subway car.

“Which way?” Kayla wondered.

“Left,” Austin announced.

He sounded confident, but one glance told Will that Austin had no idea what he was talking about. How could he? It wasn’t like they were looking for anything in particular down there. They were just trying to familiarize themselves with the maze so they could report their findings back to Chiron.

Will shrugged. “Why not?” he agreed. Then he added, “As long as we remember whichever way we go. We don’t want to get lost in here.” He tried not to let his voice quaver, unwilling to let his siblings worry more than they already probably were.

They walked down the left tunnel for what felt like an hour. Will recalled the first time Percy and Annabeth had gone missing in the Labyrinth and how the camp had spent hours searching for them. When they finally reappeared they had said that they had only been in the maze for a couple of minutes. Apparently, time had flowed differently in the Labyrinth. Will wondered if that was still the case, and if so, how long had they actually been gone for? 

A stretch of darkness in front of them suddenly caught his eye. He realized what it was at the last moment and grabbed Kayla’s shoulders, yanking her backwards before she could topple to her death. “Whoa!” he yelled.

“What-” her voice sounded irritated, but then she froze as she stared at the giant pit in front of them. The skin on her shoulders went cold in his hands before she seemed to gather herself. “Oh gods,” she whispered as she crouched down, peering into the seemingly endless pool of darkness. “How deep is this?” she whispered.

Will shuddered. He didn’t want to know how deep the pit stretched. It looked to be about thirty or forty feet across with no safe passage leading to the other side. 

Kayla reached into her quiver and pulled out an arrow, quietly whispering something in Ancient Greek. Will watched as the arrow suddenly came ablaze, before Kayla knocked it in her bow and fired it down into the pit. 

The arrow flew down for what felt like an eternity, before the light became too faint for them to see anymore. Will didn’t hear it reach a bottom. 

“Maybe we should turn back?” Austin asked, his voice quieter than Will had ever heard it. Instantly, he felt his protective older brother instincts kick in. If Austin was that scared, they should definitely just go back to camp now.

He was just about to agree when a loud roar echoed from behind them, followed by the pounding of heavy hooves. Will exchanged a look with his siblings. “I don’t think turning back is an option.”

Austin stared at the void. “But how would we go forwards?”

Kayla pulled out another arrow and shot it across the room. As it reached the other side, the tip of it seemed to open up and extend claws, turning it into a grappling hook. It embedded itself into the wall of the tunnel that continued across the expanse. At the same time as she shot it, a rope extended itself from the back of the arrow, which Kayla caught and tied around a notch that jut up from the floor. 

“Seriously?” Will’s heart pounded.

“We don’t have any other choice,” Kayla mumbled in response, gently lowering her feet into the void and pushing down with her hands on the rope to test its strength. She looked up at them with a satisfied expression. “It’ll hold us,” she announced. “But only one at a time.” She then grabbed onto the rope with both her hands and swung herself down, so that she was hanging from the rope. It sagged dangerously low from her weight. “Austin, buy us some time!” she yelled as she started to pick up her hands one by one and make her way across the chasm.

Austin put the mouthpiece of his saxophone in his mouth and faced the tunnel entrance, then started to play a soothing tune. Will thought he heard the thundering footsteps slow down. 

Once again, he found himself cursing his lack of helpful abilities. All he could do was make himself glow and stick out like a sore thumb while his brother and sister dealt with all of the combat and the hard stuff.

Will glanced nervously between the subway car tunnel and Kayla making her way across the void. His heartbeat only relaxed slightly when he saw her pull herself up on the other side of the chasm with a grunt, before wiping her hands on her jeans and turning around to look at them.

“You next, Will!” she yelled across. “While Austin holds it off!”

Will lowered himself into the pit shakily, his stomach feeling like it wanted to burst straight out through his skin. He tried not to look down as he grabbed onto the rope and slid off of the ledge. The rope jerked as it caught his bodyweight. Then he let go with his right hand and quickly grabbed it again, placing it in front of his left. The rope’s rough edges scraped against the palms of his hands.

Drawing in a shaky breath, he started to make his way across the chasm. 

He had just made it halfway across when a loud roar pierced the air. His right arm slipped off the rope so that he was dangling only from his left hand. The rope lurched, making him sway from side to side. The strap of his backpack slid off his right shoulder. He heard Austin’s saxophone song falter and the stomping grow exponentially louder.

“Will! Hurry!” Kayla screamed. He heard her shoot an arrow, which whistled overhead.

Summoning his remaining strength, he managed to grasp the rope again with his right hand, but now the backpack’s uneven weight distribution was making him lean at an angle. With a curse, he let go with his left hand and lowered his arm, shrugging off the backpack and letting it disappear into the void.  _ There goes a perfectly good shirt. _

He quickly traveled across the rest of the pit and hauled himself up onto the ledge with a groan, laying against the cool stone floor with his arms shaking. He was dimly aware of Kayla yelling and shooting arrows above him, and Austin stopping his gentle music. 

With a grunt, Will managed to make himself stand up and look back at where they had come from. A glint of bronze in the tunnel suddenly appeared, and the next moment, a raging Colchis bull stood in the tunnel, his bronze hide steaming with heat. 

He saw the bull open its mouth and recalled how it could blow fire. Before it could, Will brought his fingers to his lips and let out a loud, high-pitched whistle at a frequency that he knew resonated with bronze. The bull immediately roared - firelessly - and then went still.

Will knew that this would only last a few seconds and it would take at least a few moments for him to regain enough strength to repeat. Kayla’s quiver was running dangerously low. And Austin had only barely made it halfway across.

To Will’s dismay, the bull began to stir again. He could only watch helplessly as it lifted its head up again and pawed at the ground, the look in its eyes malicious. It opened its mouth and bellowed, a ring of fire blowing out across the chasm.

The good news: The bull had directed the fire downwards, which ended up missing Austin. But the bad news? The rope caught on fire.

Austin glanced back for a second, then continued making his way down the rope with renewed vigor. But just before he made it to the edge, the rope snapped, the fire having eaten through it behind him. 

The jolt forced Austin to lose his grip on the rope. Just before he could fall, Will threw himself forwards and grabbed his brother’s arm with both his hands. He was aware of Kayla’s hands around his ankles, preventing him from slipping into the pit with his brother.

He could feel Austin’s arm getting slippier in his grasp. Will breathed heavily, straining to keep him from falling. He would not lose another brother. He drew in a deep breath, then pulled upwards as hard as he could.

It wasn’t enough to pull Austin up, but it was enough that Austin was able to grab onto the ledge, and with Will’s and Kayla’s help, pull himself upwards onto it. Austin collapsed next to Will, his chest heaving. 

They sat there for less than a few moments before Kayla suddenly shot up. “Guys,” she said, staring the bull in the face. “Run!”

Will pulled Austin up and threw his arm around his waist, practically dragging him as the three of them ran deeper into the maze, just as searing heat from billowing flames touched their backs.

They ran for a few minutes before they finally collapsed on the floor, groaning and trying to catch their breath. Will looked down at his hands, which were scraped raw and bleeding from the rope. “You didn’t have one with a smoother rope?” he grumbled at Kayla. 

She glared at him. “Any smoother and you wouldn’t have been able to grab onto it,” she retorted, her voice harsh.

Will flinched. “I know, I know. I’m sorry,” he replied, raising his hands in a placating gesture. He reached back to grab his backpack of medicinal supplies, then cursed when he remembered how he had sacrificed that to the pit.

Kayla drew in a shaky breath. “ Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell, Will. I just...I was so scared that I was going to lose you both back there.”

Austin placed his hand on hers with a smile, though his forehead was creased with worry lines. “You’re not getting rid of us that easily,” he assured her. 

Will patted down the pockets of his jeans without hope, finding neither nectar nor ambrosia to give to his siblings. Kayla must have guessed what he was looking for because she smirked at him and reached into her own backpack, revealing a full bottle of nectar. “You’re not the only one of us who knows to keep some of this on them, you know.”

Will grunted and grabbed the bottle from Kayla, kneeling in front of her and taking her hands and turning her palms upwards as gently as he could. He knew that his siblings were capable of healing themselves, but he also knew that their healing abilities weren’t as effective as his own - and besides, he wanted them to save their strength in case they ran into anymore feral Colchis bulls down here in the Labyrinth. 

He turned the bottle upside down and dripped the nectar onto her bleeding palms. He felt her stiffen momentarily as the liquid stung her wounds, then relax as the pain subsided. He sang a quick hymn to Apollo in a low voice. The cuts on her hands shrank.

At the same time, he felt his slightly renewed energy drop as well. He closed his eyes and counted to three before opening them again. Then he ripped off the bottom of his tank top into two strips, which he quickly tied around Kayla’s palms. 

Will turned to Austin and repeated the same process, also taking an extra minute to check for any burns on his brother’s skin. Thankfully, he seemed unscathed from the bull’s fire. 

After he finished wrapping Austin’s hands, Will let himself fall back from his knees, feeling the cool ceramic wall of the tunnel press against his back. He closed his eyes and let his head rest against the wall, breathing slowly to regain his strength.

Will heard Kayla and Austin shuffling in front of him, then felt one of them take his hands. “No guys,” he murmured, trying to pull them back, but still too exhausted to open his eyes. He could still feel his heart pounding in his throat from running.

“Will, shut it.” Kayla’s voice was stern. 

“Yeah, man,” Austin chimed in. “You gotta let us help you. You can’t always be taking care of us.”

Will opened his mouth to argue, but Kayla shushed him with an irritated, “Dude. Seriously. Shut up.” Instead, he let himself lean back further onto the wall as his Kayla took his hands again, more firmly. 

Will inhaled sharply as a liquid burned his palms, which was followed by the sound of a splash and a “Whoops!” from Austin. He tried to contain his irritation at their adamance to heal him, even though he could have done it himself,  _ without _ spilling their only supply of nectar, if they had just given him a few more moments. He knew his siblings were just trying to help, which he was grateful for, though frustration loomed in his gut again as he thought about how much they always did for him. As head counselor, Will knew that he was supposed to be the one that his younger brother and sister went to for support. Not the other way around. And he had been basically useless against the bull.

As Austin finished binding his hands, Will opened his eyes. He felt a pang of guilt as he looked at their faces, which were slightly white from the healing powers they had used. “Thanks,” he mumbled, averting his eyes as he stood up.

Kayla and Austin stood up with him. 

“What now?” he asked, looking around him.

“We can’t go back,” Austin began, his voice uncertain. “So I guess we have to keep moving forward.”

Will sighed as Kayla nodded in agreement. “And that means we’re lost,” she concluded. 

A barrage of responses flooded through Will’s brain, some significantly more scathing than the others. He didn’t trust himself to say anything that wouldn’t make him sound like an irritated old man yelling at his siblings. At last, he just decided on, “Let’s go then.”

They wandered around through the tunnels for another hour or so, choosing directions at random whenever they came across multiple paths. Eventually, they found themselves stumbling into a room much larger than any they had been in before It felt as if it were several football fields wide with large, almost human-sized boxes laid out every few feet.. As Will gazed around, he had a sudden realization that made him wish they had never stepped foot in this place. “They look like…,” he began, but Kayla finished his thought.

“Caskets,” she whispered. 

Which meant that they were standing in a giant, underground tomb. Will shuddered and noticed Austin step closer to him so that he was now standing just a couple of inches behind him. 

“Let’s just get out of here,” Will suggested, turning back to the tunnel. But it had disappeared, the opening replaced by a solid wall. Instead, there was a new opening at the other end of the room. “Never mind,” he corrected himself, and the three of them stepped further into the tomb.

Blazing torches lined the walls that encompassed the room. Tapestries depicting different people hung between them. Instead of a ceiling, above them was mostly just packed dirt. Occasionally, they could see the corner of large stone blocks poking through from the dirt, into the room. The room was well enough lit that Will felt comfortable extinguishing his own glow.

“Are those headstones?” Austin murmured, following Will’s line of site to the stone corners that jutted out from the dirt.

With a jolt, Will realized that he was right. They were standing in the middle of an underground tomb, which happened to be somehow a part of the Labyrinth, residing underneath a graveyard. A shiver rippled down his spine.

They had just made it to the middle of the tomb when they heard the sounds of heavy rocks sliding against each other. Without speaking, the three of them stood with their backs towards each other, facing outwards. 

Will stared at the ceiling a few feet away from him, where the dirt seemed to be shifting. Then something white peeked out from the dirt, growing larger. Horror twisted in his gut as he realized what was happening. “Run!” he shouted, just as a skeleton dropped from the dirt onto the floor in front of him. 

He turned to the exit but it was too late. More skeletons were dropping from the ceiling all around them, and the caskets in the tomb were sliding open, even more skeletons and mummies emerging from them. Within seconds, they found themselves surrounded by an army of about a hundred undead soldiers. 

Kayla knocked an arrow. Austin lifted his saxophone to his lips. Will balled his hands into fists, but he knew there was no use. They were hopelessly outnumbered. His throat constricted as the warriors stepped in, closing the circle around them.

“Love you guys,” Will announced, resigned to their fate, as the army rushed inwards.

Just before the first line of skeletons could reach them, he heard a familiar shout. A moment later, a row of skeletons froze, their bones falling apart and clattering to the ground. There was now a clear path cutting through the circle to one side of the room.

In walked Nico di Angelo. Relief surged through Will, but was quickly replaced with unease when he met Nico’s eyes. The son of Hades looked very, very angry. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally here! Sorry for how long it took to post this chapter! It's been a crazy week, I've been working on an original thing for NaNoWriMo, I've been behind in my research group, and of course there was the U.S. election this week that had me on edge. And then there was a Destiel renaissance?? Like I said, crazy week.


	5. Nico

“THEY’VE GONE WHERE?!” Nico exploded, bones shooting out of the ground. A moment later, they lost their velocity and rained down around them. They scattered on the ground outside in front of the Big House. The commotion seemed to have attracted a few bystanders. Nico didn’t care. He stared the centaur down, not bothering to quell the anger rising in him. 

Chiron shifted between his legs, looking slightly uncomfortable. Just like everyone did when Nico wasn’t happy. “They are exploring the Labyrinth,” he repeated. “There’s a theory that it is now safer for demigods than it once was. The Apollo cabin wished to take a look themselves to determine the true nature of the newly reformed maze.” He crossed his arms. “You would have known this had you been at the campfire last night,” the centaur added, tilting his head towards Nico.

His anger intensified. The bones that were now littered on the ground began to swirl around, levitating a foot above the ground. He noticed Chiron step back a couple of steps, and heard a few gasps from the small crowd of demigods that were watching the conversation unfold.

Nico forced himself to swallow his anger, taking a deep breath and exhaling. The bones fell to the ground again.

This definitely wasn’t how he had expected the day to go.

Nico had woken up that morning late again, having had a fitful sleep with the same recurring nightmare. He had found himself in the depths of Tartarus numerous times throughout the night, the all too familiar scene of right before he got captured by giants replaying in his dreams. Except, when he was supposed to have been captured by Ephialtes and Otis, instead the darkness had swirled around him, revealing the new mortal form of Tartarus that Percy and Annabeth had described when they had returned.  _ You have left something behind,  _ the god’s voice echoed in his mind.

Having slept even less that night than he normally did, he had gotten ready for the day deciding that he should talk to someone about the dreams. He figured the best person to talk to would be Clovis, but the pot-bellied kid had already left camp for the year. So instead, he had been hoping to talk to Will about it. 

When he couldn’t find the Apollo cabin anywhere, he approached Chiron to ask what had happened to them. Now they were standing off in front of the Big House, and Nico could hardly believe what he was hearing.

“The Labyrinth  _ is _ evil,” Nico hissed, struggling to keep his voice steady.

Chiron smiled and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Nico, but that simply might not be true anymore.”

Nico closed his eyes and took a breath, restraining himself from lunging at the centaur and strangling him. Then he looked up. “I’m going in after them,” he announced.

“No.”

Anger flashed through Nico, but he remained still. “What do you mean?”

Chiron sighed. “There’s already one party in the maze. And I will not permit anyone to go in after them, especially not alone.”

Nico’s vision started to blur. The ground rumbled and the temperature of the air around them dropped. “I’m the one who spent several months in there. Alone,” he growled.

Then he heard a familiar shout. “Whoa! What’s going on?” With a jolt, he realized that he had inadvertently levitated the bones again, and had sent them flying towards Chiron. 

Nico forced the bones to fall to the ground again and turned to look at Percy and Annabeth, who were walking up arm in arm. Annabeth was glancing between Nico and Chiron with uncertainty, and Percy seemed to be scowling at Nico. 

“Chiron,” Nico began, “for some reason, decided that it would be a good idea to send the Apollo cabin into the Labyrinth.”

Their expressions darkened. Percy turned to Annabeth and murmured, “So Hazel was right. It  _ is _ back.”

Annabeth met Nico’s gaze, and a glimmer of understanding passed through her eyes. “How long have they been gone?” she asked him. 

“They left at dawn.” Chiron quickly recounted everything to Percy and Annabeth. Nico bristled at hearing again about how Will and his siblings had volunteered to go first into the maze. He couldn’t believe that Will hadn’t told him that he was going to do that.

“You can’t stop me. I’m going after them,” Nico repeated stubbornly, glaring at the centaur.

Chiron looked as if he was about to say something, but Annabeth interrupted. “We’ll go with you,” she offered. 

“We will?” Percy asked.

Nico glanced between them both. Percy looked at him and opened his mouth, then closed it again. Nico could understand Percy’s hesitance. He had already been through a lot, and the guy just wanted to be able to relax for once instead of going on another life-threatening mission.

Nico shook his head. “No, I’m going by myself.”

Lots of arguing ensued after that statement. Even Percy, who clearly wanted to spend his Friday just hanging out with his girlfriend at the beach, insisted that he and Annabeth accompany Nico. Chiron agreed to let the three of them go in, though he seemed unhappy by the decision. 

“No!” Nico yelled. “I’m not letting you put yourselves in any more danger for me!”

The arguing halted abruptly. “What?” Percy asked, confused.

Nico looked down. He hadn’t meant to say that, but the thought of Percy and Annabeth forfeiting their right to a casual afternoon had triggered old wounds of his. He remembered being dragged out of the Tartarus by Ephialtes and Otis and being thrown into a bronze jar. He remembered how hopeless he had felt as the days dragged by, wanting more than anything for the great Percy Jackson to rescue him, but desperately hoping that the demigods would have the sense to stay away and just let him die.

“Forget it,” he mumbled. “None of you can stop me,” he added, looking up and glaring at each of them. 

Annabeth stepped forward. “Nico, let us help you.”

He fixed his eyes on her, letting his anger burn through his veins. Normally, when he looked at people like that, they would be terrified of him. But Annabeth didn’t back down, returning his gaze calmly. After a few moments, Nico looked away. “Fine,” he mumbled.

“So…,” Percy said as they walked through the tunnels of the Labyrinth. “How’s Will doing?”

Nico glanced at him. Seriously? He was grateful he no longer had a strong crush on the clearly dumb son of Posiedon. “Right now? No clue,” he grumbled.

“Right. Sorry.” Percy held his sword out in front of him, the light from the celestial bronze lighting their path. 

“Besides, why does everyone always ask me about him? I have other friends too, you know.” Nico ignored the smug glance that Percy and Annabeth exchanged, as if they knew something that he didn’t. 

“Sure,” Percy acknowledged. “Like….”

Nico restrained himself from punching him. Luckily, Annabeth did it for him, throwing a playful fist at her boyfriend’s shoulder. “Shut up, Seaweed Brain.”

As annoyed as Nico was with them, for forcing themselves along with him into the maze, he was also grateful. Percy and Annabeth had been the first demigods he had ever met. And while that initial meeting had gone poorly and unraveled a whole world of new ways for him to get hurt, he always did feel a bit safer in their presence, whether he liked to admit it or not. Nico also knew how insanely powerful the two of them together were. They had actually managed to escape from Tartarus. Nico had just gotten kidnapped, and was tortured at the giants’ mercy. 

They reached a fork in the path. After a brief discussion, they decided to go left, largely in part due to the tug Nico was feeling from the subway car looking tunnel. As a son of Hades, he had always had better bearings underground than most people, though his earthen navigational skills paled in comparison to Hazel’s. 

“Anyway, thanks,” he muttered under his breath, half hoping they wouldn’t hear him. 

“What for?” Percy asked, frowning as he studied some scorch marks on the wall. 

“For offering to come with me. And for being the only ones who aren’t scared of me.”

Percy glanced at him. “Dude, you’re terrifying,” he replied, as Annabeth put her hand on Nico’s shoulder. He instinctively recoiled from her, but then forced himself to relax. It was just Annabeth.

Nico couldn’t help but to laugh. The most powerful demigod in probably all of demigod history was standing in front of him, calling him terrifying. 

“You are pretty scary,” Annabeth admitted, “to those who don’t know you.”

Nico’s mind reeled. He was pretty sure Annabeth had just implied that he was their friend. He didn’t know what to say, so he just kept his mouth shut and stared straight ahead of him. 

“You know, I bet people would probably be less scared of you if you didn’t make bones fly around and hit them when you’re mad,” Percy added, not very helpfully.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Wow, thanks for the advice,” he replied drily.

Percy shrugged. “Look, I’m just saying.”

Nico was spared from having to reply when they heard an enraged roar from farther down in the tunnel. “That can’t be good,” he groaned. He wanted to turn around, but he was certain that Will and the others had gone this way. 

“I know that sound.” Annabeth was frowning into the darkness. Nico could almost see the gears turning in her mind.

Percy agreed. “Reminds me of a few years ago, when-”

He was cut off by a second roar, sounding much closer than the first, followed by the pounding of hooves. Percy let out a swear that Sally Jackson probably would have smacked him for if she heard.

Annabeth’s face went pale. “Colchis bull. A bronze automaton that can breathe fire at you.”

Great. Nico didn’t think he had ever encountered one of those before, and he wasn’t excited to gain the experience now. 

Percy looked at him. “Can you shadow travel us?”

Nico shook his head. “Myself, maybe. All three of us? I haven’t really recovered from the Athena Parthenos yet,” he admitted. “I might end up killing us all.”

“I have a plan,” the daughter of Athena announced. “But you might not like it.”

“Well, we don’t have much of a choice!” Percy yelped, as the bull bounded into sight. It saw them and opened its mouth, roaring again, a blast of fire extending towards them. Percy tackled Nico and Annabeth, pushing them to the ground. “We’ll follow your lead!” he yelled.

When the flames subsided, Nico stood up, brushing himself off and grabbing his sword. He saw Percy dive at the bull, Riptide extended. He ducked out of the way and rolled behind the bull as it blew another ring of fire at him. Nico saw Percy glance behind him, further into the tunnel, and his face go white. “Is that-” he started, but was cut off by the bull kicking its hind leg, nearly crushing Percy’s face.

Annabeth turned to Nico. “Percy and I will take care of it. You try to get past it and keep going.”

“What? No, I’m not-” 

Annabeth rushed away from him, brandishing her bone-sword, before he could finish voicing his complaint. “Hey, Bull-Face!” she yelled. For a daughter of Athena, Nico thought, she wasn’t very good at coming up with clever insults. 

Nico ran after her, running towards the bull. As he neared it, he caught a glimpse of what must have shocked Percy so much. 

Before he could process what he was seeing, the bull turned to him and billowed fire. Nico threw himself to one side and pressed himself against the wall - just narrowly missing the brunt of the fire. The heat of the flames singed the hairs on his arms. He swore and patted out a flame that started at the bottom of his t-shirt. 

Percy and Annabeth had the Colchis bull distracted, yelling names and taunting it with their swords. There was a narrow opening between the bull’s steaming hide and the right wall so Nico took what might be his only chance and shot forwards, trying to run fast enough so that the bull wouldn’t step to its side and turn Nico into pulp. The thought of a vaguely demigod shaped splatter on the wall for generations of heroes to find later on amused him.

“Watch out!” Percy shouted.

Almost too late, Nico realized what the warning was about.. He grabbed the wall and skidded to a halt right before he nearly launched himself off the edge and into a giant pit. As he stared down into the abyss, still hanging onto the wall, he suddenly understood why Percy had looked so terrified when he had seen it.

Nico glanced back. Annabeth wasn’t doing too well. She was lying on her back, looking dazed, as the bull stood over her. Percy threw himself at the bull’s side, trying to divert its attention before it could crush her. He then stumbled backwards, yelping in pain, steam rising from his own skin.

“Hey!” Nico yelled, hoping to get the bull’s attention. There was only one way across this chasm. Percy and Annabeth wouldn’t be able to follow, but with any luck - which, of course, he had none - he could take care of the bull at the same time. “Percy, send it to me!” he yelled.

Percy looked up in confusion, then realization dawned on his face. With a quick nod, he pulled some kind of bright cloth out of his pocket and waved it around in front of the bull’s face, before balling it up and throwing it towards Nico.

The bull roared in anger and spun around. Percy ran to Annabeth’s side as the bull rushed at Nico.

Nico watched as it got closer to him, counting down from three. At the last second, he dove under the bull’s stomach and melted into its shadow.

He reemerged on the other side of the chasm, standing right on the ledge. For a second, he thought he was safe as he heard the bull roar again, this time from below as it fell into the abyss. Then the ledge he was standing on began to crumble.

Nico threw himself forward and grabbed onto the edge of the floor that hadn’t fallen away, his legs flailing underneath him. He started to black out as he heard a cold, distant laughter from below him.  _ You thought you could escape me?  _ the familiar, haunting voice chuckled. 

_ No, no no. Not again,  _ Nico thought, frantically trying to keep himself awake and from falling in. He focused on pulling himself up, trying to ignore the voices that were calling to him from the pit.

One particular voice made his heart freeze.  _ Nico!  _ cried a familiar voice.  _ Please! _

“That’s not possible,” Nico whispered to himself, and his grip on the ledge loosened.

“Nico!” he heard Percy shout. Nico shook his head, the world coming back into focus. With one last strain of effort, he hauled himself up onto the floor, crawling a few feet away from the edge before he curled into a ball, shaking and pressing his arms against his ears while pulling at his hair, trying to drown out the clamoring voices in his head.

After a few minutes, they died down. He straightened himself out and stood up, taking a couple of steps closer to the edge of the abyss. Percy was standing at the other side, holding Annabeth up. She had a gash across her thigh, and she was breathing heavily.

“Does that go-” she started, staring down.

“To Tartarus,” Nico interrupted. He saw them both recoil in horror, taking a few steps backwards. Percy put an arm protectively around Annabeth’s shoulders. “I heard him,” Nico added. “I heard Tartarus calling out to me.”

They were both silent, until Annabeth said, “Gods, Nico…,” but he cut her off, waving his arm.

“You guys go back to camp,” he instructed, wanting to change the topic. The second, pleading voice echoed in his mind. He didn’t want Percy or Annabeth to ask him any more questions about it, or he wasn’t sure that he would be able to keep himself from breaking down into tears right then and there. “I’ll find the others and bring them back. I think they’re close.”

Percy nodded, casting a concerned glance at Annabeth, who looked pale and was shivering slightly. “Good luck,” he told him before turning around, guiding Annabeth back through the way they came.

Nico took a few deep breaths once they had disappeared. He stepped backwards from the edge, unable to tear his eyes away from the abyss. If that voice belonged to who he thought it did, then Tartarus’s voice from his dreams suddenly made more sense.  _ You have left something behind. _

He shook his head, trying to shake the thoughts from his head. His dreams probably meant nothing. He was imagining the voices and possibly suffering from some trauma-related health issues. 

Even as he tried to convince himself, he knew better. Demigod dreams rarely meant nothing.

Nico turned and ran deeper into the maze. He trusted his instincts whenever he came to a crossroads, hoping that his underground senses would be enough to lead him to the right destination.

Sure enough, the tunnel eventually opened up into a large room, which he quickly realized was a tomb. As if that wasn’t horrifying enough by itself, the scene that was unfolding made Nico feel like he was trapped in a horror film. Skeletons from dropping from the ceiling and rising from their graves, all clambering towards the center of the room. There were too many of them for Nico to see what they were all moving towards, but he could guess easily enough what was at the center of the skeleton army’s circle.

Nico stepped forward and pointed his sword up, shouting a command at the skeletons for them to freeze. Then he held his other arm out towards the army, forcing the skeletons that were blocking his way to crumble to the ground. 

He swayed on his feet, but forced himself to stay conscious, walking down the newly formed path before him. At the center of the circle stood the three demigods that he was looking for - Will, Kayla, and Austin, all standing with their backs pressed against each other, frightened out of their minds.

“You idiots,” he grumbled at them as he stepped into the circle. Nico couldn’t help but glare at Will, even though he meant to speak to all of them. “I guess I’ll just save the day now, since you three don’t have the sense to keep yourselves out of danger.” He felt a small twinge of satisfaction when Will winced.

“Okay, yeah, whatever,” Kayla interrupted. “What now?”

Nico considered his options. “I can’t hold them frozen for much longer,” he admitted. “As soon as I release my hold on them, I’ll try to clear a path for you. Get to the exit.”

“What about you?” Will asked, staring at him intently.

“I’ll be right behind you,” Nico promised, though he didn’t know how well he would be able to do that. “I can navigate us back to camp once we leave.” After receiving nods from each of them, Nico’s grip on the skeleton army faltered. The undead that he had already collapsed started to rise again, bones flying together as they pieced themselves back into human figures.

Nico turned and yelled at the skeletons that were blocking their path to the exit. They fell to the ground, but his words weren’t forceful enough to dismantle the bones. The bodies twitched and clattered around on the ground, resisting Nico’s control. “Go!” he yelled, sweeping his sword in an arc, cutting vaporizing the first line of skeletons that had reached them to attack.

To his relief, they didn’t say anything, just turned and ran. As soon as they made it past the ring of warriors, Nico loosened his control and focused on bringing down skeletons one by one with his sword, determined to keep their attention on him instead of his friends. 

When they reached the exit, Will turned back and shouted. “Nico!” Kayla was shooting arrows at the skeletons on the outside of the ring, and Austin was playing a painful sounding rendition of  _ Careless Whisper _ on his saxophone.

Nico looked around. He was completely surrounded, and even if he managed to freeze the skeletons again, he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it to the exit fast enough before they overwhelmed him. Cursing, he looked around for a different kind of escape route.

There. Right behind a couple of the skeletons, one of the caskets was casting a shadow onto the ground. Nico ran towards the skeletons and jumped up, somersaulting through the air above them and landing behind them in a crouch, while at the same time swinging his sword and vaporizing them. Then he reached for the shadow and allowed his body to melt into it.

He emerged standing in front of Will and would have fallen to the ground immediately if Will hadn’t caught him. He let himself lean against him for a moment while the skeleton army looked for him in confusion. Then Nico pulled away with a grunt when he remembered he was mad at the son of Apollo.

The skeletons all turned and stared. The demigods only had seconds before they would be overwhelmed by the army. “Need to...collapse...the tunnel,” Nico wheezed, then looked at Austin. “Know any...tunes...help?” he asked, unable to form the full sentence.

Austin nodded, and a moment later an unearthly sound blared from the saxophone, making Nico want to put his hands to his ears to block it out. Instead, he held his arms out towards the tunnel entrance and yelled, making chunks of the ceiling start to fall in front of them.

Nico’s knees buckled and the world faded to black as he collapsed. He felt a pair of strong arms wrap around him and yank him backwards just before a falling boulder could crush him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, sorry again for the long wait for this chapter! There's been a lot going on lately, and still is, so while I hope to get the next chapter up soon, it might be another week or so until I am able to. But until then, I hope you enjoy what I have so far! Please continue leaving comments, I literally live for the attention, haha (plus it reminds me that I need to get my shit together and upload the next one).


	6. Nico

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay...so it's been months. And I'm really sorry. But contrary to what it seems like, I actually haven't forgotten about this! Things have been crazy lately. After NaNoWriMo ended, I got super busy with grad school applications. And then...well I kinda got obsessed with other things (Spider-Man) and forgot about Solangelo for a bit. But hey, I'm back now. And I still plan on writing this fic till the end, so I'll try to start updating more often again!
> 
> So anyway - and maybe this'll make up for not posting for the past couple of months - here's the next chapter, which happens to be longer than usual!

When Nico came to, he found himself on the ground propped up against Austin’s side. Will was kneeling above Nico, drizzling nectar into his mouth. With a grunt of annoyance, he rolled to his side and stood up, almost stumbling into Kayla, who was pacing back and forth impatiently. Unfortunately, he stood up too fast, because everything seemed to be spinning in circles around him. He felt an arm grip his shoulder, steadying him. 

Nico blinked Will into focus and stepped away from him. “Don’t touch me,” he grumbled.

Will looked offended. “Dude, seriously?” he protested.

Nico huffed and turned to Kayla, who had stopped pacing and was watching their exchange. “How long was I out?” he asked her.

“Mmm, an hour and a half, two hours maybe?” she guessed. “Can we keep moving now?”

Will glared at her. “At least give him a moment,” he scolded her.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Solace. Yes, we can go now,” he replied to Kayla. 

Austin stood up and dusted himself off, exchanging a glance with Kayla. Neither of them said anything.

“Dude, what’s your problem?” Will asked Nico angrily. 

Nico shrugged and turned away from him, taking one last glance at the pile of rocks and boulders that now sealed the entrance to the tomb. “Let’s go,” he announced and started down the passage.

To be honest, Nico wasn’t sure why his anger was mostly directed at Will instead of at all three of them. He knew he was angry that the cabin had volunteered to enter the Labyrinth in the first place. He suspected that that decision had probably been Kayla’s choice, since she had the most adventurous personality out of the three of them. So why wasn’t he mad at her?

It was because Will had agreed to go; he had a choice. And mostly, Nico mused, he was mad at the healer for not even consulting Nico first, or at least letting him know what they were doing  _ before _ disappearing.

Nico guided them through a series of tunnels, turning right or left based on whichever way felt more like home to him. He hoped that he was guiding them back to Camp Half-Blood, instead of to the Underworld.

At last, they found themselves at a dead end. Nico ran his hands along the wall until he found the mark of Daedalus. It glowed, and a hole opened up above them, revealing the Camp Half-Blood woods. Nico sighed in relief.

They helped each other out and watched as the entrance resealed itself. Nico glanced up at the sky past the canopy of the trees. It was dark and full of stars, no moon in sight. They trudged through the forest in silence. 

Once they reached the outskirts of camp, Nico began to look for signs of life. Based on the quiet and the lack of movement, he guessed that all the late-night activities had ended already and everyone must be fast asleep by now.

“I guess we’ll talk to Chiron in the morning,” he mumbled, then started the trek back to his cabin.

Will jogged up to him. “Hey.”

Nico ignored him and continued to march forwards. 

“How are you feeling? You did a lot of Underworld magic stuff earlier.”

Nico bit back a sigh of exasperation and tried to continue walking, but Will grabbed his wrist and forced him to stop, spinning him around. “Stop ignoring me!” he demanded.

“Just leave me alone, Solace,” Nico glared, yanking his hand back. 

“No, tell me what your problem is. Why are you acting like this? What did I do?”

Nico took a breath. “What do you mean what did you do? You went into the Labyrinth! You didn’t even bother telling me you were doing it, because you knew I would have stopped you. I know firsthand how evil the Labyrinth is. That place is dangerous and you nearly got yourself killed. What were you thinking? You idiot!”

He didn’t realize he had been shouting until he stopped, and Will stared at him speechlessly.

Slowly, his eyes turned cold. “You’re right, di Angelo. I did go in there. Without telling you. Maybe if you had been awake, I would have come to you first, but of course you’re too busy with all of your dark secrets, hiding from everyone all day and pushing me away.”

“You should have just woken me up.”

Will huffed. “I don’t need your permission to go anywhere, Nico. What I do with my cabin is none of your concern. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.” Will turned to walk away from him.

Nico didn’t plan what happened next, he just acted. He threw himself at Will’s back, tackling him and pushing him to the ground in rage. “What the-” Will started, before being cut off by Nico shoving his face into the ground.

Will rolled over and pushed Nico off of him, then twisted and kicked Nico in the gut. Nico doubled over and rolled out of the way of another kick, throwing himself on top of the larger boy again. The two of them continued to flail around and hit each other, ignoring the surprised shouting from Kayla and Austin nearby as they ran towards them.

Nico gritted his teeth. Will was a lot stronger than him, primarily on account of his larger size. But Nico had more experience, and he was quickly able to learn Will’s movements well enough to predict where the next punch would land. 

He feinted to one side, then pulled himself back up again and drew his arm back to punch Will’s nose. But before he could land it, two hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled Nico off of him. At the same time, he saw Kayla help Will up from the ground. 

Nico jerked away from Austin, forcing him to let go of him. He stood off to the side as Austin and Kayla placed themselves protectively in front of Will, who was breathing heavily but looked otherwise unhurt.

“Man, what’s wrong with you?!” Austin exclaimed.

Nico considered rushing at them again. He felt pretty confident he could win against Kayla and Austin, but he also knew Will would never forgive him if he did. Besides, he could tell from their faces that they knew that he could get past them easily, and he could admire the fact that they were willing to protect their brother regardless.

He also didn’t want to know what they would think of him if he tried to attack Will again. Most of the camp already hated him. The Apollo campers had always been nice to him, at least pretending to like him in front of his face.

He met Will’s eyes. He looked angry and hurt. “Goodnight, Nico.”

Nico swallowed and turned back towards his cabin. He tried to take a step, but apparently he had used up the last of his strength attacking his best friend. He stumbled to the ground with a groan.

He was used to Will rushing to him and helping him up when he overexerted himself. That didn’t happen this time. Instead, he heard the Apollo kids turn and start walking away, Kayla murmuring, “You okay?” to her older brother.

At least it was night. Nico imagined his cabin and melted into the shadows, before collapsing on the cold hard floor of the Hades cabin and blacking out.

Nico woke up to a knock on the door. He had had another dreamless night, leaving him feeling more refreshed than most nights. He was starting to wonder if he could just overwork himself to the point of exhaustion every day to avoid the nightmares. 

He stirred, and immediately doubled over. He felt like he had been run over by a stampede of centaurs. 

The door opened, a head poking in. “You up?” Percy asked, which was then followed by, “Why are you on the floor?”

Nico tried to sit up, but pain shot through his gut and he fell back down with a groan, curling into a ball. Memories of the night before came flooding back. For a gentle healer, Will Solace could kick hard.

“Whoa.” Percy walked in and helped Nico to his feet. “What happened, man?” he asked, his eyes running across Nico’s body. “You run into something else in the Labyrinth?”

Nico looked down. Not only did his stomach feel like it was on fire, but patches of purple ran up and down his arms. “Yes. I mean, no. I mean, yes, but that’s not what did this.”

“Okay. Then what did?”

“Will.”

Percy stared at him in disbelief. “You’re joking, right?”

“You should see what he looks like,” Nico replied drily. When Percy didn’t say anything, Nico shook his head, and looked away. “It was my fault,” he admitted. “I started it.”

As soon as he said it, guilt washed over him. He sat down on the edge of his bed and put his head in his heads. “I don’t know why I did it,” he mumbled, the words just spilling out. He was aware of Percy standing in front of him and watching him speechlessly. “I thought he was going to die, yesterday. I can’t lose any more people that I care about. He didn’t even seem to care about how much he made me worry.”

Percy let out a low whistle. “He probably didn’t even know that you were worried. You show about as much emotion as a brick wall, most of the time.”

“And now he hates me,” Nico concluded, miserably.

“Not necessarily.” Nico looked up at Percy, who had cocked his head to one side. He looked somewhat uncomfortable, probably because he didn’t know how to counsel his friend about his dumb friendship problems. “Will’s a good guy. He’s probably ticked off right now, but he’ll come around.”

“You think so?” Nico asked.

Percy nodded. “Yeah. I mean, just look at me and Clarisse! She’s tried to kill me like a hundred times and now we’re practically besties,” he joked, but when Nico didn’t react, his smirk dissolved. “But you should probably apologize. And guess what! You’ve got a chance to do that right now. Chiron just called a meeting for everyone who went into the Labyrinth yesterday.”

Nico groaned. The last thing he wanted to do was even  _ see _ the Apollo campers today, much less sit around a table and have a  _ discussion _ with them. He was also terrified of how Chiron would react to hearing about what had transpired between him and Will. No one could just jump the camp’s main medic - who also happened to be the one guy that everyone liked - and get away with it.

Percy left him in his cabin to get himself ready. Nico pulled off his partially burnt, dirt covered shirt and looked down at his abdomen, which adorned a patch of bright purple in the center, surrounded by several scratches he had won from the skeletons. He grimaced in pain as he pulled a new, fresh t-shirt over his head.

After he got himself freshened up, he stepped outside into the morning misty air. He found Percy with his arm around Annabeth, who looked like she had mostly recovered from the day before. They were both laughing at something Percy said.

Nico felt a twinge of jealousy at the sight, but to his relief, he found that it wasn’t directed at either of them. Somehow, it was a welcome feeling compared to the jealousy he usually felt towards Annabeth, whenever she was around Percy.

They looked up when Nico approached them and greeted him. Nico could tell from Annabeth’s expression that Percy had already shared what they had just talked about with her. He sighed. Of course, the whole camp would probably find out within the next couple of hours.

He followed them to the Big House’s conference room, where he found everyone else already seated. Kayla and Austin sat on either side of Will, and Chiron sat in his wheelchair at the head of the table. Argus stood in the corner, his hundred pairs of eyes all blinking at different intervals. 

Nico took a seat towards the opposite end from Chiron, finding himself facing across from Austin, who was glaring at him intensely. Nico looked down at the table, not wanting to meet his eyes - or any of the others.

It took about thirty minutes for the six of them to recount their experience in the Labyrinth. Kayla was concluding the story, saying “We finally made it back to camp sometime in the middle of the night. And then Nico-”

She was interrupted by Will. “Nico went to his cabin. And we went to ours. We were exhausted and we all just wanted to go to bed.”

Nico glanced up and met Will’s eyes, confused, yet grateful that he didn’t let Kayla finish explaining. Will’s expression was unreadable as he stared at him, before looking back at Chiron.

“And now here we are,” Will concluded. His right eye was a bit swollen, and gauze was taped over his lower lip. Nico could see a few bruises on his forearms, which were extended across the table as he absently played with an Ace bandage.

“Right.” Kayla put her hands in her lap.

An uncomfortable silence passed between them before anyone spoke.

“And Annabeth, dear, how is your wound?” Chiron asked. Annabeth assured him that he was feeling better.

Then the topic changed to the nature of the Labyrinth itself. 

“It felt...different,” Annabeth described. “Not as malicious.”

“Right,” Percy agreed. “It didn’t feel like it was watching us, trying to kill us, like it had last time. Sure, there were some bad things in it, like the bull, the pit to Tartarus, the underground tomb, apparently. But it felt more like those things just existed, instead of specifically trying to find us.” 

As much as Nico hated to admit it, he had to agree with that analysis. He had spent months wandering down there alone, being manipulated by an evil ghost king and trying to bring his dead sister back to life by hunting down the maze’s creator, Daedalus. He had seen just how dark the Labyrinth could get. What he felt this time had been a normal sense of demigod danger, not anything sentient.

Austin sucked in a breath. “That pit went to Tartarus?” he asked, his voice shaky.

Nico nodded reluctantly. He had carefully avoided explaining anything about Tartarus or the voices he had heard, but now it seemed like he had no choice. “As I’m sure you’ve heard from Percy and Annabeth before, Tartarus has given himself a physical form now. I could hear him when I shadow traveled across the chasm.”

Percy frowned. “What did he say?”

“Um, I’m not really sure,” Nico lied. “Mostly just laughing, and stuff. Y’know, as evil immortal beings do,” he shrugged.

That answer seemed to satisfy everyone enough, though he could feel Will’s gaze linger on him for a few extra moments. Nico forced himself not to look at him, knowing that Will would be able to see through his lies if he so much as caught a glimpse of his face.

“Well in that case,” Chiron continued, “I see no harm in continuing our expeditions of the Labyrinth. The Athena cabin can work on drawing up a map of it, making sure to note which routes contain more dangerous areas.”

Nico sat up and stared at him. “Seriously?” he asked incredulously. He gestured at the three Apollo kids. “They almost  _ died _ !”

Kayla opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything, Percy cut in. “Chiron, I don’t think this is a great idea. I’m with Nico here. It’s still too dangerous.”

Annabeth murmured an agreement. “It might be wiser for my cabin to come up with a better plan over the next few months on what to do with the maze before we enter it. Especially now, without an oracle. Unless we have no other choice, we should just try to stay away.” She brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “And if anyone were to go back, it should be a veteran of the Labyrinth. Myself or my companions from my quest could do it. Or Nico,” she added. 

Nico was grateful that she had remembered to include him, but he still hated the idea.

Percy leaned back and put an arm around Annabeth’s shoulders, nodding in agreement. “Tyson and Grover aren’t here. And Annabeth and I are trying to stay out of trouble. And...I kind of need to focus on graduating,” he added hastily after Annabeth shot him a stern look.

“Which leaves it up to Nico,” Annabeth concluded.

Nico felt everyone’s gaze turn to him, making him want to crawl under the table and hide. Luckily, he was saved from having to address everyone by Chiron’s grunt. “I will trust your judgement, although I fear there may be consequences due to our inaction. Perhaps the Ares cabin can arrange a patrol group to keep watch on the Labyrinth entrance within the camp. In the meantime, if any of you have more insight about potential expeditions within the maze, let me know.” Chiron met Nico’s eyes for a few extra seconds before turning away.

That concluded the meeting. The Apollo kids stood up immediately, and Will walked out without a word. Nico felt Kayla’s and Austin’s eyes boring into him as they followed their brother out of the room.

Nico slumped in his seat after Chiron left. He considered finding Will to apologize to him, but he doubted that his siblings would let him even get close to him. And he didn’t want to cause any more scenes.

Annabeth peered at Nico curiously. “Nico,” she began, “did you hear any other voices from Tartarus?” She hesitated. “Do you know anything about-”

Nico shook his head. “No, that was the only voice,” he lied again. “And I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything about Bob. Or Damasen. I just...don’t.”

He felt bad about lying to them. Percy and Annabeth deserved to know the full truth about what he had heard from the pit, or the dreams that he had been having almost every night. But he didn’t want to admit who he thought the second voice belonged to. They didn’t deserve to get their hopes raised and then crushed again, just because Nico was delirious and having strange flashbacks.

She looked disappointed. Percy rubbed her shoulder absently, his own brows furrowed as he thought.

Nico figured they wanted to be alone. He stood up. “I think I’m going to go back to bed,” he announced, yawning. “I didn’t really get much sleep last night.”

They both nodded and mumbled a goodbye, looking too depressed thinking about Bob the Titan and Damasen to say much more. Nico walked out of the Big House.

The next few weeks passed slowly. For the most part, Nico kept to himself and stayed in his own cabin. He occasionally tried participating in the camp’s activities, but only found himself lonelier than ever. Word of his and Will’s fight had spread like wildfire, and so every time he ventured out of his cabin, he received accusing glares from the other kids. 

Luckily, Chiron never said anything to him about it, even though he was certain that the centaur had also heard about it.

Nico’s stomach rumbled. With a sigh, he lifted himself off of his bed. It was time for his daily excursion to sneakily retrieve an apple and some water, then make it back to his cabin without anyone noticing. He had tried to go to the dining pavilion for meals a few times, as small as his appetite was, but consistently found himself disheartened when he locked eyes with Kayla or Austin, who would then whisper something to Will. Will, who would just keep his back turned to him.

As the days went on, Nico found himself wishing that Will would at least just look at him. Or at least just acknowledged the fact that he existed.

The worst part was the nightmares. Somehow, they had managed to get even worse. Now, instead of just seeing and hearing Tartarus, as well as the  _ other _ voice, Nico found himself reliving the days he spent trapped in that bronze jar, getting more and more claustrophobic by the day and running out of air, resigned to the fact that he would never see another living person again. That part of the dream would stretch on the longest, and he often found himself forgetting that it was just a dream, and starting to panic and hyperventilate for hours, just as he had before.

He often woke up in the middle of the night, panting and drenched in sweat, and it would take him a few minutes to remember where he was and to reassure himself that he was safe now, that he had just been dreaming. 

While he was awake, he couldn’t shake the lingering thought that he should leave. He had overstayed his welcome at Camp Half-Blood. The only person who had tried to make him feel like he actually belonged there now hated his guts.

And it was all Nico’s fault. He had soured the one good relationship he still had, proving to himself yet again that he always destroyed everything that he was around.

As soon as Nico’s toes touched the floor, he doubled over in pain, gasping and clutching his stomach. The wounds he had sustained from the Labyrinth after didn’t seem like they were getting better anymore. One larger gash in particular, which stretched across his sternum, was starting to turn yellow. He had initially used his emergency supply of nectar and ambrosia to treat the wounds himself, but had run out after approximately the first half of his self-induced solitary confinement. He knew he should ask some of the other campers for supplies, namely the Apollo cabin, but he couldn’t work up the courage to talk to anyone.

Maybe it really was time for him to go back to the Underworld. So much for being happy, like Hades wanted.

Slowly, he straightened himself up, gripping the nearest post of his bed and taking a couple of deep breaths. Maybe his bed would end up being a coffin after all, he thought to himself amusedly.

No. Either Will would forgive Nico, or he would just go back to the Underworld and live in the supposedly skull-adorned room that his father had prepared for him.

Nico wondered if he should go try to talk to Will now. And if Kayla and Austin decided to murder him for getting too close, then so be it.

With that thought, Nico made his way to the front door and opened it - only to find Will Solace standing right outside, his fist raised as if to knock. They both froze. Will was wearing shorts and an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, with a flannel thrown over it. His eye wasn’t swollen anymore, but there was a faint dark patch that surrounded it.

Will recovered first, lowering his fist. “Hey,” he greeted him quietly. He still wouldn’t meet his eyes, which made Nico’s throat constrict.

“Um, hey,” he managed to say, still too shocked to form a coherent sentence in his mind.

Silence. Then finally, “Can we talk?”

“Yeah, uh, okay.” Nico opened the door wider and stepped aside so that Will could come in. “That’s um, what I was just about- I was about to come find you.”

Will raised an eyebrow at him. “Sure.”

Great, so Will didn’t even believe that that’s what Nico had been about to do. To be fair, if he was in the other boy’s position, he probably wouldn’t have believed himself either. “Really, I was,” he insisted.

Will shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay fine. Why did you want to find me?”

Nico sat back down on his bed and gestured next to him, offering a seat. Will didn’t budge, just crossed his arms and stared at him.

Gods, Will wasn’t making this easy for him.

“I wanted to…apologize,” Nico began slowly, watching the expression on Will’s face. “I, um, may have overreacted that night. I just wish you hadn’t gone into the Labyrinth.”

Okay, so that wasn’t the right thing to say. Will looked angry now, shaking slightly as if he was trying not to yell a lot of mean things at Nico. “Seriously, di Angelo?” the boy finally seemed to settle on. “That’s the most pathetic apology I’ve ever heard.” Will turned towards the door and started to take a step towards it.

“No, wait! Please,” Nico begged. “I’m sorry, I was just so scared. I couldn’t control myself. I spent so long in the Labyrinth a few years ago, I’ve experienced the worst of it. When I woke up and found out that you had gone into one of the worst places I’ve ever been to, I just panicked. I thought you were going to die. I couldn’t bear to- I  _ can’t _ bear to lose another person I care about. I’m sorry.”

Will turned back towards him, exhaling slowly. His face was unreadable. “You were worried I would die. So you attacked me?”

Nico hung his head and traced the lines of the silver skull ring he wore on his finger. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, thinking that he was starting to sound like a broken record. “I would give anything to be able to go back and redo that.”

“Well, you can’t,” Will pointed out.

“Right.”

To Nico’s surprise, Will sat down on the bed next to him and stretched his arms out in front of him, flexing his hands and staring at his fingers. “Alright. I forgive you,” he finally said with a sigh. 

Nico looked up at him. Will actually met his eyes now, and they had regained some of the warmth that they usually contained when he looked at him. “Thanks.”

“And, I suppose,” Will continued, “it was pretty stupid of us to not talk to you first before we went and got ourselves in trouble. You saved my life. Not only mine, but my brother’s and sister’s too. Thank you for that.”

“Anytime,” Nico replied absently.

A few minutes of silence lapsed between them. Eventually, Will started to grin, standing up excitedly. “Wait, did you just admit that you care about me?”

Nico felt his cheeks get warm. “What? No, I-”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Skeleton Master,” Will waved, cutting him off. Before Nico could protest, Will said, “Alright, now let me see your injuries.”

Nico groaned inwardly, knowing that if he let Will see, he would never hear the end of the lectures about how he needs to take more care of himself. “Yeah, about that. I’m actually fine, so…,” he lied.

“Yeah, right,” Will replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “We both know you have no idea how to take care of yourself. Just take off your shirt and lay down,” he instructed, shoving Nico playfully in the chest.

Nico involuntarily flinched at the contact, the pain from that one cut shooting through his body. 

Will’s expression quickly turned serious as a result of Nico’s reaction. “This can’t be good,” he muttered, which was quickly followed by a “Jeez, Nico! Why didn’t you come to me sooner?” once he actually saw the state of Nico’s torso. 

Nico decided not to point out the fact that they had been avoiding each other up until then. Instead he just laid back quietly, closing his eyes as Will fished something out of his pocket and started rubbing a salve into Nico’s cuts.

“Wow,” Will remarked. “I can kick pretty good.”

Nico didn’t bother to open his eyes. “I noticed,” he replied drily.

After he had finished, Will helped Nico sit up and stood by, watching, as Nico shrugged on a new shirt. “It’s almost dinner. You coming?” Will asked him when he was done.

Nico shook his head and played with his skull ring. “Everyone hates me,” he pointed out. “If I’m going to have to sit around by myself, I would rather do it in a place where everyone doesn’t look like they want to murder me.”

Will laughed. “They’ll get over it,” he promised. Then he leaned in slightly towards Nico and lowered his voice, which made Nico’s heart race faster than he wanted to admit, and was also pointless because they were alone in his cabin. It wasn’t like anyone would hear him. “About you having to sit alone, I actually have a plan for that. I started to come up with the idea last week. It’ll take a few days, probably, but if you come with me, we can start to set it to action.” Will straightened up and raised his eyebrows, smiling mischievously. “You in?” 


	7. Will

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, the worst part about how long it took me to get this chapter uploaded is the fact that I've literally had it ready to go since I posted the last one. I've just been feeling super unmotivated lately and kept putting off uploading this one, rip. But hey, here it is!

Will led Nico out to the dining pavilion. He was grateful that the two had made amends, though he could sense how nervous Nico was about leaving his cabin. He leaned over and murmured, “Just relax.”

Of course, his siblings’ expressions when they saw Nico probably didn’t help. Kayla noticed first and balled her hands into fists, whispering something to Austin, who suddenly stood up and glared right past Will, at Nico.

Nico stopped walking abruptly. “Yeah, I think I’m just gonna go back.”

Will frowned at his siblings.  _ It’s cool, _ he mouthed, gesturing at them to just sit down. They didn’t look too happy about it, but they obliged, Austin sitting back down on the bench and folding his hands over each other on the table. They still looked mad, but Will took his chance and glanced at Nico. “Dude, come on. You’re fine with strolling into the center of an enemy skeleton army, but you can’t talk to my brother and sister?”

His friend looked uncertain, glancing back and forth between Will and the Apollo table. “Fine,” he agreed after a moment.

Technically, Nico was supposed to sit at the Hades’s table, but looking around, Will figured they still had a few minutes before everyone showed up for dinner. He tried to take Nico’s hand, but Nico jerked it away from him seemingly instinctively. Suppressing a resigned sigh, Will led Nico up to his siblings, who were all still glaring at him. 

“Guys,” Will announced. “Nico has something he wants to say.”

“Oh, this’ll be good,” Kayla grumbled under her breath. Will resisted the urge to tell her to shut up.

Nico looked uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot and absent-mindedly twirling the skull ring he was always wearing. He opened his mouth a few times, as if to speak, then promptly closed it. Finally, he seemed to decide on, “I’m sorry for almost killing your brother.”

Will groaned inwardly. Nico wasn’t making a very good case for himself. “And?” he prompted, feeling like a parent settling a dispute between his children.

“And…I shouldn’t have lost control of my temper, and I shouldn’t have yelled at you for going into the Labyrinth when you were just trying to be good heroes.”

Kayla smiled at Nico, but there was nothing warm about it. 

“Thanks, Nico,” Austin replied. “Please be assured that we will take your apology under careful consideration. You can expect a response sometime over the next few weeks.” He continued to glare at him.

“Uh, yeah. Okay.” Nico gave Will one last glance before he scampered away to his own table.

Will sat down with a groan, burying his head in his hands and massaging his temples. “Gods, he’s an idiot,” he muttered to himself. When he looked up, he saw Kayla eyeing him curiously. 

“You don’t seriously still like him, do you?” she asked.

Will shrugged. “He’s going through a lot,” he tried to explain.

Austin stared at him incredulously. “It doesn’t matter how much he’s going through!” he protested. “That’s no excuse!”

Kayla was nodding in agreement.

Will knew they were technically right. “Yeah, I know,” he assured them. “But we talked about it, okay? He really, really regrets it.” They both opened their mouths to protest again, but Will cut them off. “I know him, okay? He definitely has some… _ issues _ , but he’s trying. And I can at least kind of understand what he’s going through. I have to least try to help him get through this.”

“Fine. But if he so much as lifts a finger at you, I’ll-” Kayla made a gesture that vaguely resembled her snapping a stick in half.

Will couldn’t help but laugh. “I know you will. You’re both the best brother and sister a guy could ask for. But can you at least try to be nice to him? Just a little?”

They gave him grudging nods. “But I don’t want to have to be hanging out with him, okay?” Austin complained.

Will winced. “Yeah, see, about that…,” he began, then quickly explained to them the same plan he had told Nico in Cabin 13. 

He was expecting them to argue with him, but instead they just looked resigned. “Way to consult us first,” Kayla grumbled, while Austin at the same time whined, “Do we have to?”

Will nodded. “Hey, you liked Nico enough a few weeks ago. Both of us have already made up with each other, and we’re moving on. Can’t you do this, for me?” He felt bad guilting them, but he felt worse at the prospect of leaving the struggling son of Hades to deal with his problems all on his own.

As dinner was served, Austin turned to Kayla to discuss their options in hushed voices. Will rolled his eyes. He was used to this. The price of becoming head counselor was that he could no longer participate in the secret discussions. He found himself missing the few months he had with Michael Yew, where they would pretend to have secret conversations just to bother their own head counselor, Lee Fletcher. 

With a sigh, Will stood up to give his bickering siblings some space. He grabbed his plate and made his way to the altar. 

“Apollo,” he murmured as he scraped a portion of his food into the fire. He watched it go up in flames. “Just…please be alright.”

Even more weeks had gone by without news of their father. Will tried to reassure himself that there was no reason to worry, that his dad was an Olympian and would be perfectly fine, but he couldn’t help himself. Every time he thought about Apollo, something just felt really wrong.

Will swallowed and sat back down at his table.

Kayla and Austin seemed to have finished conferring with each other. “We have agreed to be nice to Nico, and to help you out with your dumb plan,” she informed him. “But only because you asked so nicely.”

Will smiled in relief. “Thanks, guys. You’re the best.”

“Also,” Austin added, “because we have bets on whether you can actually manage to make him your boyfriend or not.”

Will scowled at them. “Never mind, I take it back. You’re the worst.”

As they joked around and ate their meal, Will couldn’t help glancing back at Nico a couple of times. 

Nico sat hunched over, sullenly picking at his food with his fork. Will wasn’t sure if the kid was actually eating his food or just playing with ite. He was glad that he’d gotten the chance to talk to Nico. For the past several weeks, Will had tried to avoid him. Not that avoiding him had been particularly hard, since the kid hardly ever stepped out of his cabin. But Will had missed his company. He had missed watching Nico angrily brush his hair out of his eyes every time it blew into his face, and had missed how Nico always used to smile a little bit when Will said something to him.

But Will had also been wary of going near him. He had always known how dangerous he was, and he had heard enough about Nico’s sometimes wavering loyalties. Somehow, Will had never thought that Nico would direct his anger at him. Their brawl had made Will come to the painful realization that, as badly as he wanted to, he didn’t actually know Nico well enough to really understand him and his motives. Not yet, at least.

It definitely hadn’t occurred to him how Nico would have felt upon waking up to find Will missing. He had heard how hard Nico struggled to keep himself from breaking down while they were talking in his cabin earlier. When Nico had mentioned that he was scared of losing him, Will suddenly realized how much he actually meant to the son of Hades, despite his constant protestations and how much he pushed Will away. 

The realization made Will’s heart hurt. Clearly, Nico was terrified of letting people into his life, because he had already lost too many. Will hated to think that he had contributed to how helpless Nico must be feeling about that.

At the same time, seeing how much his best friend cared about him left Will feeling a bit giddy. Maybe there was a chance, after all, that Nico could reciprocate Will’s feelings towards him. Maybe the two had a future that could hopefully put an end to Austin’s and Kayla’s unceasing bets. 

“So, when’s this plan of yours going to happen?” Austin asked.

“Right now.” Will stood up and reached his hands high above his head, as if enjoying a good stretch. 

Right on cue, Kayla yelled, “Oh my gods, there’s another zombie!”

Will turned around, and sure enough, a zombie was stalking up to the Apollo table. Kayla quickly nocked an arrow and shot a killing blow, causing the monster to disintegrate. Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw Nico flinch. He wondered if Nico could feel the injuries of the dead he controlled. If so, Will didn’t understand how Nico could handle that.

Everyone turned to the son of Hades, who had stood up awkwardly.

“Dude!” Will exclaimed at him. “Again?”

Nico shrugged, looking sheepish. His face was slightly red. “I, um, whoops. Sorry about that. Again. I didn’t mean to, I swear.” He sounded, and looked, so convincing that Will wondered if Nico genuinely was that embarrassed, or if he was secretly an amazing actor. Will decided it was probably a combination of both. 

The rest of the camp grumbled a few things to one another before resuming their meals, but thankfully none of them seemed too particularly upset about it - or at Nico. Will shot him a quick smile before turning around himself and sitting back down at the Apollo table to finish his meal.

They repeated the scene a few more times over the next couple of days, but with slight variations. Sometimes it was Will or Austin who noticed the zombies first. Sometimes it was kids at different tables. Each time, Nico would summon them to appear at a different corner of the dining pavilion, but still close enough to him that it would be obvious where they came from. 

After the second time, Malcolm from the Athena cabin cornered Will and Nico while they were talking outside of the Hades cabin. “What are you two getting at?” he asked, glaring accusingly between Nico and Will.

Nico’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?” he asked, giving a shrug that looked so innocent that Will was shocked when Malcolm didn’t believe it.

“I know you’re bringing the zombies in on purpose. I’m not stupid,” Malcolm shook his head.

After a few minutes of arguing back and forth, and failing to convince Malcom that there was nothing going on, they finally gave in and explained what they were doing. 

Malcolm pondered it for a few minutes, stroking his hairless chin. “It’s a stupid idea. But I guess it’s stupid enough that it might actually work. How can I help?”

Will exchanged a look with Nico, not believing their luck. Nico was resisting a smile. 

“Alright, next time Nico can summon the zombies in your line of sight,” Will instructed. “And, you know, just repeat the process about freaking out and killing it, and whatnot.”

“That’s it?”

Nico shook his head. “No. After that you should say something implying that I need to get my head checked.” He paused for a second, then added with a smirk, “That probably isn’t too far off the mark, anyway. There’s all kinds of messed up garbage in my head.”

Will laughed. “Yeah, so anyway, do that and then I can take Nico to the infirmary and give him a checkup.”

Malcolm seemed satisfied with his role in their plan, though as he walked away, Will heard him muttering something along the lines of how stupid it was and how he was only interested in conducting the experiment so he could see if it actually worked.

Will turned to Nico and held his hand up for a high five, which Nico seemed happy to oblige. He marveled at how much Nico’s demeanor had changed after just a couple of days of being among friends again. It was hard to imagine how terrifying he had been only days ago, when he’d been angry and afraid.

“Let’s see how dinner tonight goes then. Until then, want to come to our music class?” Will offered.

Nico got a faraway look in his eyes, his smile fading, but recovered himself so quickly Will wasn’t sure if he had imagined it. “I think I’m good,” Nico refused. “You’d have to kill me before you got me to go to a music class.”

Sure, Nico still acted distant a lot of the time. But at least now it was at a normal level of demigod secretism, instead of a constant feeling of  _ Oh my gods, this guy is going to murder me!  _ And sometimes Nico would smile at Will, making his stomach do a little somersault every time.

Will made himself smile again. “Alright, Death Boy. Catch you later, then.”

Things didn’t go quite as according to plan. 

Will could hardly contain his excitement at dinner. Even Austin and Kayla must have noticed Will’s high spirits, due to the ceaseless teasing he received.

Desperate to change the topic away from Will and his love life, he glanced at Kayla. “So, how’s your dad doing?” he asked.

“Archery never sleeps.” Kayla shrugged. “I think he’s a bit overwhelmed with all the classes and one-on-one sessions he has with students now. Half of his kids want to go to the Olympics, apparently.”

“So do you,” Austin pointed out.

Kayla rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah. But I’m not his student. Chiron’s the one helping me out. As great as my dad is, I’m not going to get training as good as Camp Half-Blood’s anywhere.”

“Is that even allowed?” Austin mused. “Like, morally? I feel like being the daughter of the archery god has to be along the same level of cheating as taking steroids.”

She frowned, as if suddenly reevaluating all of her life goals. “Um….”

“Hey, it’s probably fine,” Will reassured her. “No one is going to say you can’t do something because of who your dad is.” He frowned. “I mean, your other dad. Or well, I guess both your dads,” he added with a shrug. “I’m the son of Apollo too, and I can’t shoot an arrow to save my life.”

Austin laughed. “Yeah, bro, we know,” he teased.

Kayla pushed Austin. “Will, you’re not that bad at it.”

Will rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure.”

“No, really,” Kayla insisted. “You have good aim. You’re still way better at archery than most of the camp. Just because you’re not as good as me-”

“Or me!” Austin interrupted.

“Shut up,” Kayla reprimanded, giving Austin another light shove. “Just because you’re not as good as us, doesn’t mean that you suck.”

Will appreciated Kayla trying to make him feel better about his subpar archery skills. It was a valiant attempt, but unfortunately, it failed. “I just wish I could have been more help when we had to fight Gaea’s forces. Or last week, when we were in the Labyrinth. All I could do was stand there while you two did all the hard work.”

Austin’s voice was uncharacteristically upset. “Are you kidding me, Will?” Uh oh. If Austin was actually using his name, that meant he really was mad. “You’re never just  _ standing _ there. You’re a healer. You’re a combat medic, man. Without you, so many more demigods would have died during the Battle of Manhattan and the Second Giant War.  _ Kayla _ wouldn’t even be here right now if it weren’t for you!”

Will held his hands up, trying to get Austin to stop ranting at him. “Yeah, okay fine.” He didn’t really agree with him, but he felt uncomfortable whenever the campers praised him for doing anything, when he knew that if he had just been better, then more of his siblings would still have been alive. Lee and Michael should have had a better version of Will watching their backs. 

“He’s right,” Kayla agreed. “You work harder than anyone at this camp. Besides,” she added with a hint of a smirk, “you’re our glow-bro.”

Will groaned. They were never going to stop making fun of him for that. He opened his mouth to make some kind of clever retort, but was cut off by a commotion from the Athena and Ares tables.

“Oh my gods!” a girl from the Athena table screamed, standing up and pulling out a dagger. 

More campers followed suit. Will followed their line of sight and froze at what he saw.

He had been expecting one or two zombies to make an appearance that night. He definitely had not been expecting a small militia of about thirty or forty undead soldiers, marching towards them in unison.

“Is that Nico?” Kayla yelled.

Will shot a glance at the son of Hades, who was standing on his table looking panicked. “I don’t think so,” he told her, before running to Nico’s side.

Nico looked down at him, shaking his head with wide eyes. “This wasn’t me,” he told him desperately. From his eyes, Will could tell that he was scared that people wouldn’t believe him.

“Okay,” he agreed and held out his hand to Nico. “Can you make them go away?”

Nico ignored the gesture and looked at the oncoming army trekking closer to them. “Maybe. I’m not sure. There’s just so many of them…,” he trailed off.

“Do what you need to do. I’ll be here to make sure you’re okay,” Will assured him. He hated having to let Nico use his Underworld powers, knowing that he was still recovering from the past few months of abuse and overextending himself. Every time Nico did enough to black out, Will could sense the darkness in him temporarily overpowering him. He was afraid that one of these days, Nico would do too much and wouldn’t be able to come back from it.

But the zombie soldiers outnumbered the campers now that everyone had gone back home for the school year. If Nico didn’t take care of it, then there would end up being bloodshed.

Nico nodded at him and extended his sword towards them. “Halt!” he commanded.

The zombies froze and all turned to stare at the Underworld king’s son. Will felt uncomfortable standing next to him, feeling that many enemy eyes pointing in his general direction. 

“How did you come here?” Nico asked in the same commanding voice.

For a moment, there was no response. Then Will heard a hissing voice sound from the air around them, as if all the zombies were speaking as one. “Our master will not allow us to tell you,” they hissed.

“I am the son of Hades. You will answer to me, or feel my father’s wrath.”

The voice waited again before responding. “We cannot tell you,” he finally said.

Will could sense Nico’s frustration at not getting answers. 

“Begone, then.” Nico ordered, sweeping his sword in front of him. The earth opened up and swallowed the zombies into the crevice, before reforming so perfectly that Will couldn’t see where it had happened. 

A moment of silence passed before campers started talking amongst themselves.

Will turned to Nico, who was still standing upright, his sword extended outwards. He was surprised that he had managed to stay awake so far after exerting himself like that. “Nice,” he complimented him.

As if on cue, Nico’s eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped forwards.

Will jumped up and caught him before he could hit the ground, swinging him over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry. “I’m taking him to the infirmary,” he announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have two more chapters already written so I just need to work on getting those revised so I can post them hopefully soon! But it's been so long since I actually wrote anything for this fic (several months actually) that I don't even remember where I wanted to go with it...so I think I'm gonna binge-read a bunch of books so I can get back into the vibe of PJO and Camp Half-Blood, otherwise I'm not gonna be able to write anymore. So hopefully I can read it all fast enough that I can get back to uploading regularly!
> 
> Thanks everyone who leaves comments, whenever I get one it literally makes my whole day.


	8. Will

Will watched Nico sleep. Which, when put like that, sounded incredibly creepy. 

He had laid the son of Hades down on the usual infirmary bed. Nico had spent so much time in that bed that it might as well be marked and sectioned off as Nico’s little home away from home - or bed away from coffin.

He was snoring quietly, but his body would tense up every few minutes, his hands balling into fists, and sweat accumulating on his forehead. Will considered trying to resuscitate him sooner, but he could tell that Nico hadn’t been sleeping well lately and needed the rest, especially after putting that many undead warriors into the ground.

Sometimes, Will felt a little honored that the most powerful demigod in camp was  _ his _ best friend - though hopefully even more than that eventually. But more often than not, he found himself cursing the Fates for putting Nico through so much, and how much his powers cost him mentally. The kid deserved a break.

Hopefully he would finally get one, now that Gaea had been defeated. But Will couldn’t ignore the fact that so many enemies had just managed to wander into the camp somehow. Why hadn’t the protective boundary worked? Unless they had somehow come from inside the camp….

He tried to shake the thought. If his suspicions were correct, then Nico definitely wouldn’t be getting a break any time soon. Or, at least, he wouldn’t even let himself try to have a break.

“No,” Nico murmured deliriously, his hands trembling. “No, please.”

Will jolted at the sound of his voice and leaned in closer to Nico, resting his fingers against the boy’s carotid to make sure his heart rate wasn’t too high. 

Nico continued to mumble in his stupor, most of which Will couldn’t hear. He was, however, able to make out a few names.  _ Tartarus. Ephialtes. Otis. Tartarus. Gaea. Percy. Tartarus. Bob? Tartarus. _

Will’s heart ached. Nico had been the first demigod ever to go through Tartarus and make it out alive, much less in one piece. Tartarus was the deepest, darkest part of the Underworld, filled with so many monsters that no one - not even the gods - dared to venture there. But Nico had, and he had been completely on his own. Of course he would still be traumatized from the experience. It was a miracle in itself that he hadn’t gone completely insane.

Will placed his hand softly on Nico’s, hoping to at least provide some subconscious reassurance that he was okay. 

What he didn’t expect was for Nico’s eyes to snap open, and to have to drop to the ground to avoid Nico’s fist slamming into his ear. “Whoa!”

The next thing Will knew, his shoulder blades were pressed uncomfortably into the cold tile floor of the infirmary, and an angry looking emo kid was kneeling above him, his forearm pressed into Will’s throat. 

“Dude,” Will managed to croak.

Nico blinked a couple of times, as if slowly realizing who he was and what he was doing. His cheeks turned pink. With an embarrassed, “Oops,” he got off of Will and helped him up.

Luckily he hadn’t been pressing on Will’s throat too hard. After coughing his lungs out for about half a minute, he straightened up and raised his eyebrows at Nico, who looked sheepish.

“You shouldn’t have startled me like that.”

“What did I do?” Will protested.

“You touched me,” Nico replied with an awkward shrug and looked away.

“I’m your doctor! I have to be able to touch your skin without fearing for my life!” 

Clearly, Nico didn’t feel like arguing about it anymore. As he sat back down on his bed, he muttered an apology that Will suspected he didn’t really mean.

Will smoothed his shirt down and cleared his throat again, then handed Nico the glass that he’d been saving for him. “Here, drink.”

Nico took a sip, then made a face. “What is that?”

“Blue Gatorade,” he told him.

“What’s Gatorade?”

Will frowned. “Dude. You haven’t heard of Gatorade?”

“ _ Dude _ ,” Nico mimicked Will. “I’m from the 1930’s.”

Right. Will forgot how old Nico was sometimes. He usually felt a little awkward having a crush on a kid who was a year younger than him, but technically speaking, Nico was actually sixty or seventy years older. “Okay, but you’ve been in this time for what, three or four years? There’s no way you haven’t heard of Gatorade.”

Nico shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, well, guess I haven’t had many opportunities to bring myself up to speed on everything so far.” 

That was a good point. Ever since Nicoleft the Lotus Hotel he had been busy stopping a world-threatening war waged by a primordial, immortal being -  _ twice _ . 

“So, what’s  _ Ta-gor-ade _ anyway? Why am I drinking this?” Nico wondered, quinting at the light blue liquid that remained in his glass.

“Gatorade,” Will corrected, but from the look on Nico’s face, he guessed that Nico probably didn’t care. “It’s a sports drink. It’ll give you a boost of energy. Although,” he continued, rubbing his throat ruefully, “it doesn’t really seem like you need it.”

That brought a smirk to Nico’s face. Will got the sense that Nico still wasn’t completely sorry about choking him. 

“So what now?” Nico asked. “That didn’t really go the way we wanted it to.”

“No,” Will agreed. “I don’t think you should summon any more zombies, either. Not after last night. I’ll just write you up a doctor’s note, which’ll hopefully be enough for Chiron?”

Nico tilted his head, looking uncertain. “But then people will think that I did this.” He sighed, then miserably added, “They probably already do.”

“They can’t. Everyone saw how much energy it took out of you doing what you did. If anyone thinks that you’re the one who summoned them, then they’re just stupid,” Will pointed out.

Nico seemed to consider that for a few minutes before shrugging. “Alright,” came his well-thought out and articulate reply.

Will walked over to the other side of the room and pulled out a pen and a pad of paper. It took him three attempts before he was able to procure a note with just the right kind of unreadable doctor’s scribble that he usually saw on prescriptions.

_ Dear Chiron, _ it read.  _ Please allow Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, to sit with other cabins (like the Apollo cabin) for mealtimes, as he has a mood disorder that prevents him from properly being able to control his powers when he is alone. Thanks, Dr. William Andrew Solace. _

Satisfied with the note, he turned back to Nico, who was twirling his skull ring, looking deep in thought. He looked up when Will cleared his throat.

“Here,” he said, handing Nico the paper. 

Will noticed the corners of Nico’s lips twitch as he read the note, but aside from that, he didn’t seem to have any reaction besides, “Wow, your handwriting sucks.”

Will rolled his eyes. 

He hated to change the topic, but he had to know. “So do you have any idea where those zombies came from, then? Since it wasn’t you?”

Nico’s expression darkened. “I have...a theory,” he replied. He looked like he wanted to say more, but was stopping himself.

“Nico, talk to me,” Will insisted.

Hesitantly, Nico continued. “I don’t really know. I’ll need to talk to Chiron about it first. But let’s just say, I might be spending a lot more time in the Labyrinth than I was hoping to. It’ll be...fun.” He said the word  _ fun _ as if it meant getting chopped up into little pieces and tossed into the ocean.

Will considered that. “If you have to, then at least let me go with you,” he offered.

Nico’s face hardened. “No.”

“Why not?” Will protested.

“You know why,” Nico replied coldly as he jumped down from the bed. “I’ll go take this to Chiron.”

Will grabbed his wrist, and was surprised when Nico didn’t immediately shrug it off. “Did you have another dream about Tartarus?” he asked him, before flinching at the glare he received from the son of Hades.

“It’s none of your business,” Nico replied slowly. Will thought he could see the gears turning in Nico’s head, wondering if he should tell him or not. “Don’t worry about it,” Nico said, shaking his head.

Will tried to hide his disappointment. He’d been hoping that Nico was starting to open up a bit more over the past few weeks, but Nico still seemed to be pulling away. “Fine,” he acknowledged, and let go of his wrist. He noticed Nico glance down, his gaze lingering on the spot where Will had been holding him for a few seconds. 

As Nico made to leave the infirmary, Will quickly stopped him again, but this time without reaching for him. “At least wait until morning to talk to Chiron. It’s late.”

“How long was I out for?” Nico asked.

Will thought about that for a moment, glancing at his watch. “Um, almost an hour? Maybe a bit longer?” he offered. At Nico’s sigh, he continued. “Get some sleep, di Angelo. Doctor’s orders,” he insisted.

“Fine.” Nico rolled his eyes, then sprinted out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him.

When Will got to the dining pavilion the next morning, he found Nico already standing at the head table, engrossed in conversation with Chiron. And by the looks of it, Chiron didn’t seem too happy about what Nico was saying.

“Excuse me for a minute, guys,” Will said with a sigh to Austin and Kayla. He marched up to stand behind Nico.

“Last night’s attack wasn’t me,” Nico was insisting. “But, um, the rest of them were, unfortunately. Will diagnosed me with a mood disorder. I just can’t control it.”

“That’s right,” Will chimed in. For a second he was worried that he had startled Nico again and would have to duck out of the way of his deadly fist, but Nico didn’t seem to react. He had probably already heard him coming. “Due to a lot of occurrences in Nico’s past, he’s developed a disorder in which he can’t control his anger very well when he is alone. If he’s around other people, though, his mind wanders less and we can expect fewer, or no more, zombie attacks.” Will felt a pang of guilt at lying to Chiron, but that was quickly replaced with the realization that everything he had said was actually true.

Chiron’s gaze flitted between Will and Nico. At last, he folded up the note and tucked it into his shirt pocket. “So we won’t have to worry about any more zombie attacks?” he asked Nico.

Nico nodded. “Yeah. Well, except for-”

Will elbowed him in the ribs. “No more zombie attacks,” he promised, “if Nico can sit with a different cabin.”

Chiron glanced around at all the tables. “Which table would be best then? Hermes? Or perhaps even the Aphrodite table?”

Will cleared his throat as Nico turned pink. “Well, ideally, for his mental health, it would be a cabin of his choosing.” He turned to face Nico. 

“Uh...yours?”

“The Apollo cabin welcomes you with open arms! And that way I can also keep tabs on his mood throughout every meal,” Will added, glancing back at Chiron.

Nico looked at Will gratefully. 

Chiron pondered everything for a moment. He looked as though he wanted to argue, but didn’t have the energy. “Very well, then,” he finally agreed. “If everyone will be happier this way, then so be it.”

Will struggled to contain his grin as he led Nico to the Apollo table. As he sat down, Kayla looked between them in awe. “It worked?” 

Nico slid in besides Will. Will glanced at him and noticed he was sitting a painful couple of feet away from him.  _ One step at a time, _ he reminded himself, thankful at least that he could spend meals with the cute emo son of Hades.

“I think Chiron just didn’t want to argue about it,” he admitted to his siblings. “But either way, Nico gets to eat meals with us now!”

Will could see his brother and sister struggling not to look disappointed. Unfortunately, it seemed like Nico noticed it too.

“I can always go back to my table,” Nico offered, his voice just slightly quieter than normal.

Will shook his head and placed his palm on Nico’s hand, which was resting on the edge of the table. “No. You’re staying here,” he ordered, before shooting a glare at Kayla and Austin. The two suddenly seemed very interested in their breakfast muffins. He kicked Kayla’s shin under the table.

She looked up at Nico with a visibly forced smile. “Of course, Nico. You’re welcome to stay here with us. Right, Austin?”

“Mhm,” he agreed, still invested in his muffin.

The tension in Will’s shoulders loosened a bit. His siblings had already been getting used to Nico’s “creepy death vibes” before they had had their little fight. Now they were still upset, for sure, but hopefully it wouldn’t take long for them to warm up to him again. “So,” Will started, glancing over at Nico who was staring at the food on his plate rather than eating it. “Did you talk to Chiron about the- er, other thing?”

He ignored the piercing glare that Nico shot him.

Austin glanced up. “What other thing?” he asked, which awarded Will with another angry glare from Nico. 

“About the zombies, and the skeletons,” Will prodded, raising his eyebrows at Nico, right before he felt the front of a shoe connect with his shin. “Ow!”

Kayla smirked, clearly withholding a laugh. So much for Will’s supportive siblings protecting him from the extremely dangerous Nico di Angelo.

“I did,” Nico responded slowly, holding his spoon in a way that Will wasn’t sure if his friend was threatening him or not.

Probably not. “And?” Will pushed.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Fine. I talked to Chiron about what caused the zombie attack last night. I think it’s connected to what I-what we encountered in the Labyrinth.”

Austin’s eyes widened, accurately portraying how Will was feeling. “You think they came from there?”

Will hated the implications of what Nico was saying, but he knew he was correct. He had arrived at the same conclusion himself. “It makes sense,” Will nodded. “How else could they have gotten through the camp’s boundaries? They were probably mad at us for, like, causing a disturbance in the Force or something.”

Nico looked at him, confused. “What?”

Kayla rolled her eyes, while Austin laughed. “It’s a Star Wars reference,” he explained to Nico. “Those movies have an  _ amazing _ musical score, by the way.”

“Right!” Will held his hand up for a high five, which Austin happily obliged.

“Oookay,” Nico replied, looking as confused as before as he glanced between the two of them. “Anyway, to answer your question,  _ kind of _ .”

Will frowned. “What do you mean, kind of?”

Nico hesitated. “I don’t know if I can say. Chiron’s going to have a head counselor meeting later. I probably shouldn’t give too much away before that.”

“Aw, come on! We can’t go to that,” Kayla complained. “And Will doesn’t tell us  _ anything _ good from those meetings. I always have to listen to the gossip from the other campers to figure out what’s happening.”

“Look, I’m just trying to protect you guys,” Will protested.

Austin snorted. “Whatever, bro.”

Nico looked like he was trying not to smile. Will had a strange urge to push the corners of Nico’s lips apart so that he was smiling, but he decided against it, figuring that he would rather not just throw away his life like that. “I don’t know…,” Nico’s voice trailed off.

“Please?” Kayla asked, reaching across to touch Nico’s hand, which was resting on the table.

Nico jerked his hand back violently. Will was concerned, but he felt a small satisfaction at the fact that Nico let him touch his hand, but wouldn’t let anyone else. “Fine,” Nico agreed. “Only if you promise never to touch me again.”

Kayla rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure, Edge-Lord. Whatever.”

Nico looked as if he was going to protest being called Edge-Lord, but then thought better of it. “So, here’s the thing. That wasn’t the only underground tomb in the Labyrinth. There’s a bunch. I ran into more of them when I was younger, when-uh, you know.”

Will shuddered. “Gods, more tombs? I hope we never have to deal with those,” he said, but he knew it wouldn’t be that easy. Life for demigods never was.

“Don’t worry Solace,  _ you _ won’t have to,” Nico assured him, his words a stinging reminder of how he had rejected Will when he had offered to go with him. “Anyway, the zombies we saw probably came from that tomb, since it’s the closest one. Here’s the thing though. I don’t think we angered them, or whatever you said about the...push thing.”

“Force,” Will corrected, trying not to bring up the fact that Nico had never seen Star Wars.

“Whatever. All of these tombs are connected to each other. The weird thing is, they aren’t powered through the Underworld.”

Will let the words sink in for a moment. “Wait, so you mean that there’s something controlling them?”

Nico nodded, looking worried. “I think so. I’m not sure. But if there is-”

Austin cut him off. “If there is, then that means something made them wake up while we were in the Labyrinth, and something told them to attack us during dinner.”

They all sat there in silence. Will desperately tried to come up with something to say to ease the tension, but the only thing that crossed his mind was that Nico suddenly seemed to have an appetite for his food. He was scarfing down the eggs at a speed that would probably make him sick.

“On that bright note,” Will finally said, breaking the silence and standing up, “I think I’m going to go and make sure I’m ready for my class before I get sucked into a fun meeting about our inevitable doom.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for continuing to read my work, it means so much to me! And remember, commenting is a fantastic way to guilt me into working on the next chapter faster. ;)


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